Author: claimsbot

1. A swivel cable connector mounting structure, comprising:
a device housing comprising a through hole at a peripheral wall thereof;
a rotary connector comprising an electrically insulative cylindrical base rotatably inserted through said through hole of said device housing, said electrically insulative cylindrical base having an inner end and an outer coupling end, two metal pivot rods affixed to and bilaterally perpendicularly disposed at said outer coupling end of said electrically insulative cylindrical base outside said device housing, and two metal conducting terminals longitudinally embedded in said electrically insulative cylindrical base and respectively connected to said two metal pivot rods and respectively partially extending out of the inner end of said electrically insulative cylindrical base in said device housing;
a swivel connector comprising an electrically insulative and substantially U-shaped base, said electrically insulative and substantially U-shaped base comprising two bottom arms arranged in parallel, a coupling space defined between said two bottom arms and configured to fit said opposite outer end of said electrically insulative cylindrical base of said rotary connector, and two pivot holes respectively transversely located on said two bottom arms in communication with said coupling space and respectively pivotally coupled to said two metal pivot rods at said outer coupling end of said electrically insulative cylindrical base of said rotary connector, and two metal conductors embedded in said electrically insulative and substantially U-shaped base and respectively extended to said pivot holes and kept in positive contact with said two metal pivot rods of said rotary connector; and
an electrical cable electrically connected to said two metal conductors.
2. The swivel cable connector mounting structure as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a spring member mounted around said electrically insulative cylindrical base of said rotary connector and said peripheral wall of said device housing, wherein said rotary connector further comprises an electrically insulative stop flange extending around the periphery of the inner end of said electrically insulative cylindrical base and stopped at one end of said spring member against an inner surface of said peripheral wall of said device housing, said electrically insulative stop flange having a greater diameter than said through hole.
3. The swivel cable connector mounting structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein said rotary connector further comprises two electrically insulative stop flanges extending around the periphery of said electrically insulative cylindrical base and respectively stopped at opposing inner and outer sides of said peripheral wall of said device housing, said electrically insulative stop flanges having a greater diameter than said through hole.
4. The swivel cable connector mounting structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein said outer coupling end of said electrically insulative cylindrical base of said rotary connector has a flat profile, exhibiting an elevational difference relative to said electrically insulative cylindrical base.
5. The swivel cable connector mounting structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein said two bottom arms each have a round end.
6. The swivel cable connector mounting structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein said swivel connector comprises a wire hole located on a top side of said electrically insulative and substantially U-shaped base in communication with said coupling space and extending in a parallel manner relative to the extending direction of said two bottom arms; said electrical cable is inserted through said wire hole and electrically connected to said two metal conductors.
7. The swivel cable connector mounting structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein said two metal conducting terminals are selectively made in the form of flat metal blades or round contact pins.

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. An apparatus for making cotton candy comprising:
a supply of sugar;
a heating device for melting the sugar into a molten form;
a pumping device for pumping the molten sugar;
an extrusion device having at least one extrusion orifice, the pumping device operably coupled to pump the molten sugar into the extrusion device;
the extrusion device operable to extrude a strand of molten sugar from the orifice which is solidified to form cotton candy.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said extrusion device comprises a spinnerette including a plurality of orifices, the spinnerette operable for simultaneously extruding multiple strands of sugar in forming the cotton candy.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said extrusion device comprises a plurality of nozzles wherein each nozzle includes at least one orifice, the plurality of nozzles operable for simultaneously extruding multiple strands of sugar in forming the cotton candy.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said extrusion device is movable for directing the extruded strand of sugar in multiple directions to form a wad of cotton candy.
5. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a delivery device coupled between the supply of sugar and the pumping device for delivering the sugar to the pumping device.
6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said delivery device comprises a screw extruder.
7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said pumping device comprises a geared metering pump.
8. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a cooling chamber, the extrusion device operable to direct the extruded strand of sugar into the cooling chamber for solidifying the strand to form the cotton candy.
9. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a cooling device for directing a stream of cooling air at the extruded strand of sugar for solidifying the strand to form the cotton candy.
10. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a conveyor device operable for conveying a container proximate to the extrusion device for capturing the strand of sugar and containing the cotton candy, the conveyor device further operable for conveying the container of cotton candy away from the orifice for further processing.
11. A method of making cotton candy comprising:
melting an amount of sugar into a molten form;
pumping the molten sugar into an extrusion device having at least one extrusion orifice;
forming a strand of molten sugar with the extrusion device and extruding the strand through the orifice;
solidifying the molten strand of sugar;
directing the strand to form a wad of cotton candy.
12. The method of claim 11 further comprising pumping the molten sugar into a spinnerette including a plurality of orifices, the spinnerette operable for simultaneously extruding multiple strands of sugar in forming the cotton candy.
13. The method of claim 11 further comprising pumping the molten sugar into a plurality of nozzles where each nozzle includes an orifice, the nozzles operable for simultaneously extruding multiple strands of sugar in forming the cotton candy.
14. The method of claim 11 wherein said extrusion device is movable, the method further comprising moving the extrusion device in multiple directions for directing the extruded strand of sugar in multiple directions to form a wad of cotton candy.
15. The method of claim 11 further comprising delivering the sugar to the pump with a conveying device comprising a screw extruder.
16. The method of claim 15 further comprising feeding solid sugar into the screw extruder and melting the sugar as it is conveyed to the pump.
17. The method of claim 11 further comprising pumping the molten sugar with a geared metering pump.
18. The method of claim 11 further comprising directing the extruded strands of sugar into a cooling chamber for solidifying the strand for forming the cotton candy.
19. The method of claim 11 further comprising directing a stream of cooling air at the extruded strand of sugar for solidifying the strand for forming the cotton candy.

1. A method of forming a pixel cell for an image sensor, the method comprising:
forming a photodiode, the act of forming the photodiode comprising forming a plurality of layers within a substrate, the plurality of layers comprising at least a first layer of a first material, a second layer of a second material, a third layer of the first material, and a fourth layer of the second material, wherein the first material has a first band gap and the second material has a second band gap, wherein layers of like material are not in contact with one another, wherein the first, second, third and fourth layers are configured to promote ionization by a first carrier type and suppress ionization by a second carrier type in the presence of an electric field, wherein the act of forming the layers comprises doping a first subset of layers to a first conductivity type and doping at least a second subset of layers to a second conductivity type, and wherein the first conductivity type is different than the second conductivity type;
forming a buffer between a bottom layer of the photodiode and the substrate, the act of forming the buffer layer comprises forming a buffer layer with a composition that changes from a bottom surface of the buffer layer to a top surface of the buffer layer, wherein the bottom layer of the photodiode and the top surface of the buffer layer have approximately the same chemical composition;
forming a first transistor for transferring the first carrier type from the photodiode, the transistor formed adjacent to the photodiode; and
forming a second transistor for coupling the pixel cell to an output line.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of forming the layers comprises forming the layers such that a difference between the conduction band energies of the first and at least second materials is greater than a difference between the valence band energies of the first and at least second materials.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of forming the layers comprises forming the layers such that a difference between the valence band energies of the first and at least second materials is greater than a difference between the conduction band energies of the first and at least second materials.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of forming the layers comprises forming the layers of materials selected from the group consisting of Si, SixGe1-x, SixGe1-xCy, GaAs, GaAlAs, InP, InGaAs, or InGaAsP.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising forming a floating diffusion region adjacent to the transistor and forming readout circuitry electrically connected to the floating diffusion region for reading out charge.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the layers are formed by any of chemical vapor deposition, atomic layer deposition, epitaxy and ion implantation.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of forming the photodiode comprises forming at least a portion of the photodiode at a level above a level of a top surface of the substrate.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of forming the layers comprises forming approximately 10 to approximately 100 layers.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of forming the layers comprises forming the layers to each have a thickness of approximately 50 Angstroms to approximately 300 Angstroms.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of forming the photodiode comprises forming the plurality of layers within a surface of a silicon-on-insulator substrate.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first, second, third, and fourth layers have a same thickness.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least a first and third layer of the first material are formed to comprise SixGe1-x, and the at least a second and fourth layer of the second material are formed to comprise SiyGe1-y.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least a first and third layer of the first material are formed to comprise SixGe1-xCy, and the at least a second and fourth layer of the second material are formed to comprise SixGeyCz.
14. The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of layers further comprises a fifth layer of a third material, wherein the third material has a third band gap different from the first band gap and the second band gap.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth layers have a same thickness.
16. The method of claim 1, wherein:
forming the photodiode comprises forming a bottom layer comprising SixGe1-x; and
the buffer layer comprising SiyGe1-y;
wherein y is approximately x at the top surface of the buffer layer.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein y is approximately 1 at the bottom surface of the buffer layer.
18. A method of forming a pixel cell for an image sensor, the method comprising:
forming a photodiode, the act of forming the photodiode comprising forming a plurality of layers within a substrate, the plurality of layers comprising at least a first layer of a first material, a second layer of a second material, a third layer of the first material, and a fourth layer of the second material, wherein the first material has a first band gap and the second material has a second band gap, and wherein layers of like material are not in contact with one another, and wherein the first, second, third and fourth layers are configured to promote ionization by a first carrier type and suppress ionization by a second carrier type in the presence of an electric field;
forming a buffer between a bottom layer of the photodiode and the substrate, the act of forming the buffer layer comprises forming a buffer layer with a composition that changes from a bottom surface of the buffer layer to a top surface of the buffer layer, wherein the bottom layer of the photodiode and the top surface of the buffer layer have approximately the same chemical composition;
forming a first transistor for transferring the first carrier type from the photodiode, the transistor formed adjacent to the photodiode; and
forming a second transistor for coupling the pixel cell to an output line,
wherein the act of forming the layers comprises forming alternating layers of Si and SiGe, wherein the act of forming the layers comprises doping the layers of Si to a first conductivity type and doping the layers of SiGe to a second conductivity type, and wherein the first conductivity type is different than the second conductivity type.
19. A method of forming a pixel cell for an image sensor, the method comprising:
forming a photodiode, the act of forming the photodiode comprising forming a plurality of layers within a substrate, the plurality of layers comprising at least a first layer of a first material, a second layer of a second material, a third layer of the first material, and a fourth layer of the second material, wherein the first material has a first band gap and the second material has a second band gap, and wherein layers of like material are not in contact with one another, and wherein the first, second, third and fourth layers are configured to promote ionization by a first carrier type and suppress ionization by a second carrier type in the presence of an electric field;
forming a buffer between a bottom layer of the photodiode and the substrate, the act of forming the buffer layer comprises forming a buffer layer with a composition that changes from a bottom surface of the buffer layer to a top surface of the buffer layer, wherein the bottom layer of the photodiode and the top surface of the buffer layer have approximately the same chemical composition;
forming a first transistor for transferring the first carrier type from the photodiode, the transistor formed adjacent to the photodiode; and
forming a second transistor for coupling the pixel cell to an output line,
wherein the act of forming the layers comprises forming alternating layers of Si and SiGe, wherein the act of forming the layers comprises doping a first subset of layers to a first conductivity type and doping at least a second subset of layers to a second conductivity type, and wherein the first conductivity type is different than the second conductivity type.
20. A method of forming a pixel cell for an image sensor, the method comprising:
forming a trench in a substrate doped with a dopant of a first conductivity type;
forming a photodiode by forming a plurality of alternating layers of Si and SiGe, wherein at least one of the alternating layers is at least partially within the trench, and wherein layers of like material are not in contact with one another;
doping the alternating layers of the photodiode such that they have alternating dopants, a bottom layer being doped with a dopant of a second conductivity type, and a layer immediately above the bottom layer being doped with the dopant of the first conductivity type, wherein the alternating layers of the photodiode are configured to promote ionization by a first carrier type and suppress ionization by a second carrier type in the presence of an electric field; and
forming a transistor for transferring the first carrier type from the photodiode, the transistor formed adjacent to the photodiode and over the substrate.
21. The method of claim 20 wherein the alternating layers are formed by any of epitaxy, chemical vapor deposition, and atomic layer deposition.
22. The method of claim 20 further comprising forming a reset transistor for resetting the photodiode to a predetermined voltage.
23. The method of claim 20 further comprising forming the photodiode to be part of a CMOS image sensor.
24. The method of claim 20 further comprising forming the photodiode to be part of a charge coupled device image sensor.
25. The method of claim 20 wherein the alternating layers are SixGe1-x and SiyGe1-y.
26. The method of claim 20 wherein the alternating layers are SixGe1-xCy and SixGeyCz.
27. The method of claim 20 further comprising:
forming a buffer layer between the bottom layer of the photodiode and the substrate such that a bottom portion of the buffer layer is in contact with the substrate, and a top portion of the buffer layer is in contact with the bottom layer of the photodiode, the act of forming the buffer layer comprising forming a buffer layer with a composition that changes from the bottom of the buffer layer to the top of the buffer layer.
28. The method of claim 27 further comprising forming a floating diffusion region, wherein the transistor adjacent to the photodiode and over the substrate is a transfer transistor for transferring charge from the photodiode to the floating diffusion region.

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 for cleaning a surface of a photoreceptor of an image forming apparatus, comprising the steps of:
(i) feeding a recording sheet into the image forming apparatus;
(ii) stopping the recording sheet so that it is in contact with the surface of the photoreceptor of a photoreceptor drum;
(iii) rotating the photoreceptor drum while the recording sheet is stopped to clean the surface of the photoreceptor;
(iv) feeding and moving, after step (iii), the recording sheet downstream in a feeding direction; and
(v) repeating steps (ii) and (iii), after performing step (iv), using the same recording sheet.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the photoreceptor drum is rotated one time or more and five times or fewer during the step (iii).
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus comprises a plurality of photoreceptor drums that are provided along the feeding direction, wherein the recording sheet is brought into contact with all of the photoreceptor drums in the step (ii), and wherein all of the photoreceptor drums are rotated in the step (iii).
4. The method according to claim 3,
wherein during step (iv) the recording sheet used in the cleaning is moved downstream in the feeding direction by a distance that is shorter than a distance between adjacent ones of the photoreceptor drums.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus comprises a plurality of photoreceptor drums that are provided along the feeding direction, and wherein during the feeding, stopping and rotating steps, the recording sheet is fed, one by one from a most upstream side to a downstream side, between adjacent ones of the photoreceptor drums.
6. The method according to claim 5, wherein, during the stopping and rotating steps used to clean a photoreceptor of a second one or a following one, in a feeding direction, of the photoreceptor drums provided along the feeding direction, the recording sheet is stopped by causing the recording sheet to be sandwiched between (i) an adjacent one of the photoreceptor drums on an upstream side and (ii) a transfer roller that is provided to transfer onto a recording sheet an image from the adjacent one of the photoreceptor drums.
7. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing an image forming apparatus to perform a method as recited in claim 1.
8. A method for cleaning surfaces of photoreceptor drums of an image forming apparatus that includes a plurality of photoreceptor drums arranged along a feeding direction, comprising the steps of:
(i) feeding a recording sheet into the image forming apparatus;
(ii) stopping the recording sheet so that it is in contact with a first one of the photoreceptor drums;
(iii) rotating the first photoreceptor drum while the recording sheet is in contact with the first photoreceptor drum to clean the photoreceptor drum;
(iv) moving the recording sheet further along the feeding direction and stopping the recording sheet so that it is in contact with a downstream photoreceptor drum located downstream of the first photoreceptor drum; and
(v) rotating the downstream photoreceptor drum to clean the downstream photoreceptor drum.
9. The method of claim 8, further comprising repeating steps (iv) and (v) so that the recording sheet is successively brought into contact with and is used to clean each of the photoreceptor drums located downstream of the first photoreceptor drum.
10. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing an image forming apparatus to perform the method as recited in claim 8.
11. An image forming apparatus, comprising:
means for feeding a recording sheet into the image forming apparatus;
means for stopping the recording sheet so that it is in contact with the surface of a photoreceptor drum of the image forming apparatus;
means for rotating the photoreceptor drum while the recording sheet is stopped;
means for feeding and moving the recording sheet downstream;
means for stopping the recording sheet so that it is still in contact with the photoreceptor drum; and
means for again rotating the photoreceptor drum.
12. The image forming apparatus of claim 11, wherein the image forming apparatus includes a plurality of photoreceptor drums, wherein the means for stopping the recording sheet causes the recording sheet to be stopped when the recording sheet is in contact with all of the plurality of photoreceptor drums, and wherein the means for rotating the photoreceptor drum causes all of the plurality of photoreceptor drums to rotate.
13. The image forming apparatus of claim 12, wherein the means for stopping the recording sheet so that it is still in contact with the photoreceptor drum stops the recording sheet so that it is still in contact with all of the plurality of photoreceptor drums, and wherein the means for again rotating the photoreceptor drum causes all of the plurality of photoreceptor drums to rotate.
14. An image forming apparatus that includes a plurality of photoreceptor drums arranged along a feeding direction, comprising:
means for feeding a recording sheet into the image forming apparatus;
means for stopping the recording sheet so that it is in contact with a first one of the photoreceptor drums;
means for rotating the first photoreceptor drum while the recording sheet is in contact with the first photoreceptor drum to clean the first photoreceptor drum;
means for moving the recording sheet further along the feeding direction and stopping the recording sheet so that it is in contact with a downstream photoreceptor drum located downstream of the first photoreceptor drum; and
means for rotating the downstream photoreceptor drum to clean the downstream photoreceptor drum.