Abstract: A thin film, photovoltaic, solar energy conversion device comprising: a thin-film, photovoltaic layer; a transparent electrical conducting layer in contact with said photovoltaic layer; a back electrical conducting layer in contact with said photovoltaic layer; fabricated on a suitable substrate; said photovoltaic layer being of a material selected from the class consisting of: monoclinic zinc diphosphide (also referred to as beta zinc diphosphide and indicated by &bgr;-ZnP2); copper diphosphide (CuP2); magnesium tetraphosphide (MgP4); gamma-iron tetraphosphide (&ggr;-FeP4) and mixed crystals formed from these four materials. A thin film fabrication process is presented that produces high efficiency, low-cost photovoltaic layers of the above-indicated class.

Abstract: A time of flight spectrometer having a dynode detector in which a set of dynode plates at an output end of the dynode is each connected to an associated capacitor that functions as a charge reservoir for said dynode, thereby substantially avoiding saturating this dynode. A grid is place adjacent to and parallel to a front surface of a target to produce an acceleration region that accelerates ions substantially perpendicularly away from said front surface, thereby reducing time of flight deviations caused by nonperpendicular emission of ions from the target. A biased guide wire aligned perpendicular to the front surface of the target produces an electric field that images ions from the target onto a detector.

Abstract: A fire detector having a greatly reduced frequency of generating false alarms. An AND gate is responsive to outputs from first and second fire detector modules that are responsive to the detection of first and second characteristics of a fire, respectively, to signal the detection of a fire if both of these characteristics have been detected. At least one override path is included to enable the occurrence of a particular type of fire to be signalled that would not otherwise be signalled by the output of said AND gate.

Abstract: Vector-specific test circuitry is added to an existing circuit design to enable improved fault test coverage by an existing fault test. Each vector-specific test circuit is designed to produce a single output indicative of whether any faults were detected in a plurality of previously unobservable node states produced in response to an associated test vector.

Abstract: A bearing having an inner section that is easily snapped into an outer section to form the bearing. The inner section includes a cylindrical ring portion and an exterior-extending, locking ring portion. The outer section includes a cylindrical ring portion and an interior-extending, locking ring portion. When formed of self-lubricating plastic, this bearing is light-weight, thin and inexpensive. Dimensions can be selected to make this bearing easy or difficult to disassemble.

Abstract: A mill suitable for use in an office environment because is constructed to collect particulates produced by the milling process without producing an undue amount of noise by this collection process. An isolation wall substantially eliminates particulate flow from the milling cavity into a motor/control cavity. A positive-pressure air flow through the motor/control cavity further reduces particulate transfer from the milling cavity into the motor/control cavity and draws these particulates into a particulate collection tray.

Abstract: A fluorescence flow cell having a capillary through which a sample fluid is moved, an optical source that directs an exposing beam of light through the sample fluid, a collector that collects fluorescent light from the exposed region of the sample and directs such collected light to a detector. A beam blocker prevents light that is scattered by the capillary walls from reaching the detector, thereby improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the system. The beam blocker also has a pair of legs that prevent the sample fluid from being exposed by either the exposing light or the collected light outside of the exposing region. The structure of the components enables the various components to be quickly and accurately assembled and enables easy replacement of the capillary.

Abstract: A trench MOSFET that includes a charge carrier getter region to substantially deplete a plurality of body regions during an off-state of this MOSFET to produce a very low off-state leakage current. In a first class of embodiments, this charge carrier getter region is a thin layer of material, of opposite conductivity type to that of the body regions, and located between a plurality of gate regions and the body regions. In a second class of embodiments, the gate regions are of opposite conductivity type to the body regions to function as a charge carrier getter region as well as a gate region.

Abstract: A method of filling a capillary with a substantially void-free gel by forming the gel outside of the capillary and then extruding the gel into the capillary. The initial gel can be formed as a rod of gel much larger in diameter than the capillary into which it is to be extruded. This rod of gel is rinsed to remove polymerization contaminants and then dried to form a dried gel preform. The gel can be resolvated with a compatible solvent and then extruded into one or more capillaries.

Abstract: A radiation source is presented that exhibits an improved efficiency of converting input energy into a quasi-blackbody output beam. A wavelength selective element can be included to transit one or more narrow bands of this radiation for use in spectroscopy. The intensity of the output beam can be varied quickly, thereby decreasing measurement times and enabling synchronous detection techniques to be implemented at reasonable frequencies. A feedback mechanism can be integrated into this device to enable accurate control of the blackbody temperature. This radiation source can be manufactured by conventional integrated circuit manufacturing techniques, thereby producing an inexpensive quasi-blackbody source of accurately and repeatably controlled performance.

Abstract: A clock generator for producing a pair of nonoverlapping clock signals. Each of a pair of output clock signals is generated by an associated AND gate having a first input connected directly to a clock input and having a second input connected through a delay element. Mechanisms are included to sense the amount of delay introduced by this delay element and to select a new delay value when the sensed delay is outside of an operating range.

Abstract: An apparatus for measuring the concentration of a selected solute in a solution. This apparatus is particularly suitable for measuring the concentration of blood components, such as blood glucose. A beam of exposing light is imaged through a wall of a containment vessel onto a region of the sample adjacent to this wall to induce from said selected solute emission of light that includes at least one emission peak that can be used to calculate the concentration of this solute. At least one detector is positioned to maximize the strength of detected signal, if other components of this solution strongly absorb the emitted light. The exposing light is directed such that the detected signal is maximized as a function of the path of this exposing light. A particular embodiment is a non-invasive blood glucose tester that can be used painlessly by diabetics to monitor their blood glucose levels. In this embodiment, the containment vessel is preferably one of the patient's fingers.

Abstract: A laser having a roughened, catalytic surface to regenerate fluid within the lasing chamber that decomposes during operation of the laser. The roughness of this surface greatly increases its surface area thereby greatly increasing the rate of action of this catalytic surface in regenerating fluid. This structure is particularly useful in producing small, handheld CO.sub.2 lasers.

Abstract: A motor/generator that is operable in an inductive mode during a startup phase and in a synchronous mode thereafter. Superconductor material is included in either the stator or the rotator and a magnetic field generator is included in the other of these two members. Induced fields in a torque-shield provide coupling between the stator and the rotor during the startup phase and then a trapped field in the superconductor provides coupling between the stator and the rotor thereafter.

Abstract: A connector that couples a leg of one object to a leg of a second object to prevent relative translation motion between these two objects and that does not transmit substantial vibrational energy between these objects. This connector is attached at a base of each object and is preferably attached to a pad of damping material at the base of each object.

Abstract: A plasma reactor containing within the processing chamber pieces of magnetic material located to reduce and/or substantially eliminate systematic processing rate nonuniformities. These pieces are placed inside the chamber or attached inside of the pedestal adjacent to the top of the pedestal, where the wafer is to be located for processing. The thickness, shape and magnetic permeabilities of these magnetic pieces are selected to optimize process uniformity.

Abstract: A time-of-flight mass spectrometer in which sample ions are generated from a target and are focussed into an ion beam that is incident onto a detector. A barrier that defines an aperture in the path of the ion beam is positioned to block ions having an extra large deviation from an average time-of-flight of the ions, thereby improving resolution. The aperture can be adjusted to adjust a tradeoff between sensitivity and resolution. Alternatively, the position of the aperture or the bias on an einzel lens can be adjusted to control this resolution.

Abstract: An automated system for providing a preselected sequence of chemicals to a reaction. This apparatus includes a track on which a set of cartridges are placed in a preselected order corresponding to an order in which they are to be used in a reaction process. These cartridges are moved past a point at which these chemicals are extracted for use in the process. The chemicals are preferably in liquid form and are contained in containing having a top seal through which a needle can penetrate to extract chemicals for use in the process. These containers preferably contain the aliquot portion needed for the process, thereby providing a mechanism for providing accurate amounts of each chemical to the process.

Abstract: A detector cell, having a capillary entrance elbow through which a beam of exposing light can be directed into the bore of a central leg of the detector cell capillary. Ray traces, to determine the effect of the entrance elbow on the beam of exposing light are used to optimize performance of this detector cell. Back ray tracing is implemented to illustrate an optimized embodiment. Forward ray tracing is also illustrated and can be used to determine system performance for a range or choices of a single parameter or for concurrent ranges of choices of a subset of the parameters of the beam of exposing light.

Abstract: RAM Built-In Self-Test logic is presented that utilizes a linear feedback shift register (LFSR) to generate data. Preferably, an LFSR is also utilized for address generation during memory self-testing. More than one cycle is implemented with offset of successive data sequences relative to address sequences to increase fault coverage. Memory storage is utilized in the data generation to enable a reduced area of the data generation circuitry.