Wireless force sensor on a distal portion of a surgical instrument and method

A surgical instrument includes a distal portion. A force sensor is operatively mounted on the distal portion. The force sensor includes a wireless package, which wirelessly provides (1) identification information of the surgical instrument and (2) strain data related to the distal portion. A surgical end effector includes a jaw and the distal portion is on a non-contact portion of the jaw. The wireless package includes a surface acoustic wave strain sensor with identification information. The wireless package also includes a small folded antenna electrically coupled to the surface acoustic wave strain sensor with identification information. The identification information includes an identification of a type of surgical instrument and unique identification of the specific surgical instrument in the type of surgical instrument.

Wound closure material

Articles are provided having no orientation or a multi-directional orientation. Such articles may be in the form of films, ribbons, sheets, and/or tapes and may be utilized as buttresses with a surgical stapling apparatus or as reinforcing means for suture lines. The articles may be produced with etchings on at least a part of a surface of the article.

Membrane for use with implantable devices

The present invention provides a biointerface membrane for use with an implantable device that interferes with the formation of a barrier cell layer including; a first domain distal to the implantable device wherein the first domain supports tissue attachment and interferes with barrier cell layer formation and a second domain proximal to the implantable device wherein the second domain is resistant to cellular attachment and is impermeable to cells. In addition, the present invention provides sensors including the biointerface membrane, implantable devices including these sensors or biointerface membranes, and methods of monitoring glucose levels in a host utilizing the analyte detection implantable device of the invention. Other implantable devices which include the biointerface membrane of the present invention, such as devices for cell transplantation, drug delivery devices, and electrical signal delivery or measuring devices are also provided.

Electronic devices with voice command and contextual data processing capabilities

An electronic device may capture a voice command from a user. The electronic device may store contextual information about the state of the electronic device when the voice command is received. The electronic device may transmit the voice command and the contextual information to computing equipment such as a desktop computer or a remote server. The computing equipment may perform a speech recognition operation on the voice command and may process the contextual information. The computing equipment may respond to the voice command. The computing equipment may also transmit information to the electronic device that allows the electronic device to respond to the voice command.

Substrate supporting/transferring tray

To provide a substrate supporting/transferring tray, which can be placed on a substrate supporting part arranged in a treatment chamber in which the heat treatment is performed to a substrate, especially on a substrate supporting part having a built-in heating means for heating the substrate, and on an upper side of which, the substrate is placed. At the time of heat-treating the substrate, the substrate can be more uniformly heated, and when the heat treatment is completed, the tray can be easily removed from the substrate supporting part without waiting for the temperature of the substrate to be reduced, and can transfer the substrate to other parts from the treatment chamber in which the heat treatment is performed. The substrate supporting/transferring tray, which has the disc-shaped substrate supporting part on an upper plane side, and is provided with a cylindrical side wall part extending from a periphery of the disc-shaped substrate supporting part to a lower side, and an annular part extending from a lower end side of the cylindrical side wall part to an outer side in a diameter direction.

Light-emitting apparatus and production method thereof

Provided is a method of producing a light-emitting apparatus having a field effect transistor for driving an organic EL device, the field effect transistor including an oxide semiconductor containing at least one element selected from In and Zn, the method including the steps of: forming a field effect transistor on a substrate; forming an insulating layer; forming a lower electrode on the insulating layer; forming an organic layer for constituting an organic EL device on the lower electrode; forming an upper electrode on the organic layer; and after the step of forming the semiconductor layer of the field effect transistor and before the step of forming the organic layer, performing heat treatment such that an amount of a component that is desorbable as H2O from the field effect transistor during the step of forming the organic layer is less than 10−5 g/m2.

Patient specific alignment guide with cutting surface and laser indicator

A patient-specific guiding system for guiding an instrument relative to a portion of an anatomical feature of a patient. The patient-specific guiding system includes a patient-specific guide. The guide includes a first portion having a first patient-specific inner surface that conforms to a first surface of the anatomical feature and an outer surface opposite the first patient-specific inner surface. The first portion also includes a guide surface for use in guiding the instrument relative to the anatomical feature. The guide also includes a second portion having a second patient-specific inner surface that conforms to a second surface of the anatomical feature and an outer surface opposite the second patient-specific inner surface. The second portion is removably connected to the first portion.

Inhalation device and heating unit therefor

The invention relates to a heating unit for an inhalation device for the inhalation administration of an inhalation mixture of air and at least one additive material, having a fuel storage (252) which is filled or can be filled with a thermally combustible solid or liquid fuel (258), and with a combustion chamber (256) for the combustion of the fuel (258), which is essentially sealed from the surroundings by a combustion chamber wall (222). The invention further relates to an inhalation device (210) with such a heating unit. According to the invention, the combustion chamber (256) is designed for forming a flame, and the combustion chamber wall (222) has at least some micro openings (224). The micro openings are designed in such a way that the sum of the outer side lengths of all micro openings (224) is at least 140 mm, and the sum of the outer side lengths of the micro openings (224) per surface in the area of the combustion chamber wall (222) averages at least 80 mm/cm2. Application as cigarette substitute or as aid for nicotine withdrawal.

WIRELESS BASE STATION DESIGN

A multi-transmitter base station for wireless digital communication, having beam forming and digital pre-distortion capabilities, including a shared feedback unit for providing feedback of outgoing Radio Frequency (RF) signals for calibrating a plurality of antennas and for adapting the digital pre-distortion. Related apparatus and methods are also described.

Combination touch and transducer input system and method

A combination touch and transducer input system is provided, which facilitates user input into an electronic system with a finger and/or a transducer (e.g., a stylus). The system includes a transducer configured to generate an electric field, and a sensor including an array of electrodes and a controller. The transducer is configured to transmit digital data, such as pen pressure data and switch status data, to the sensor. For example, the transducer comprises electronic circuitry configured to encode the digital data in a signal for transmission to the sensor. The sensor controller is configured to operate both in a touch sensing mode and in a transducer sensing mode. During the touch sensing mode, the controller determines a position of a proximate object (e.g., a finger) by capacitively sensing the object with the array of electrodes. During the transducer sensing mode, the controller determines a position of the transducer based on a signal received by the array of electrodes from the transducer, and also receives and decodes the digital data encoded in the received signal. Digital data can be encoded in a signal using any suitable digital modulation techniques, such as a Frequency-Shift Keying (FSK) technique.