Abstract: In a liquid metal heat transport system including a source of thaw heat for use in a space reactor power system, the thaw flow throttle or control comprises a fluid passage having forward and reverse flow sections and a partition having a plurality of bleed holes therein to enable fluid flow between the forward and reverse sections. The flow throttle is positioned in the system relatively far from the source of thaw heat.

Abstract: A liquid toner applicator for elongated photoconductive film medium on which a latent electrostatic image has been formed includes an upper bearing surface for supporting moving film medium, which is spaced from a conductive block having an upper surface. The conductive block has slots cut into a toning region of its upper surface. During operation, pressurized toner wells through the slots into the region between the lower surface of the film and the upper surface of the block. The toner tones the latent image. The upwelling toner spills into fluid channels, which carry the toner which is not used to a catch basin. From the catch basin, a toner pump recirculates the toner. Downstream form the toning region, a further slot cut into the block communicates with a vacuum source to squeegee away excess toner which is not associated with the toned image. An air knife downstream from the vacuum squeegee includes a slot cut an an angle through the block and a pressurized air source therefor.

Abstract: A P-channel field-effect transistor includes an inherent junction diode. As it is normally used, the inherent diode is back-biased and therefore effectively out of circuit. An uninterruptible power supply arrangement including primary and backup voltage sources supplies uninterrupted power to a load by way of two or more P-channel field-effect transistors connected so that their inherent diodes conduct to provide an OR function, independent of field-effect operation of the field-effect transistors. A control circuit controls the gate voltage relative to the source voltage of each transistor to selectively short-circuit the inherent diode of that one transistor which is connected to the power supply which is to energize the load. This reverse-biases the other inherent diodes and effectively removes the other power supply from the circuit, so that power for the load is drawn only from the selected power supply, there is no diode forward junction potential reducing the load voltage, and no excess dissipation.

Abstract: A light viscoelastic damping structure has a plurality of damping strips widely separated on the surface of a lightweight panel. The strips may be arranged parallel or at right angles to each other. Each damping strip includes a viscoelastic damping layer, a first honeycomb structure having opposing face sheets and attached to one surface of the damping layer, and a second honeycomb structure having face sheets on opposing sides thereof attached to the damping layer and to the panel.

Abstract: The detector is responsive to a modulated intermediate frequency (IF) or radio frequency (RF) signal for producing four sample signals spaced at 90.degree. one-quarter IF (or RF) cycle apart, the first and third sample signals corresponding to the amplitude of the IF signal and its negative value, respectively, the stream of such sample signals corresponding to the inphase component of the IF signal; the fourth and second sample signals corresponding to the amplitude of the IF signal and its negative value, respectively, the stream of such sample signals corresponding to the quadrature component of the IF signal.

Abstract: A leadless ceramic chip carrier (LCCC) is soldered to mating conductor pads on a circuit board by depositing a layer of solder paste on peripheral contact pads and on an array of central pads on the board. The same solder paste type and melt temperature are used for both peripheral and central pads. the contact pads of the LCCC are placed on the solder layers and the assembly exposed to infrared radiation from above or other energy source. The LCCC body shades the solder on the central pads resulting in the solder layers at the peripheral pads melting first. The solder on the central pads then melts and balls up due to surface tension lifting the LCCC away from the board stretching the melted solder at the peripheral pads which make the electrical connections to the LCCC contacts.

Abstract: An adaptive interference cancelling signal processing system includes N+1 processors for cancelling N interfering auxiliary signals from a primary signal. During a prelook or inactive period of the primary signal when a component of interest is not present in the primary signal, the N+1 processors are configured to produce the N(N+1)/2 correlation coefficients L.sub.ij which enable weights for the auxiliary signals to be determined. The same N+1 processors may be reconfigured to convert these L.sub.ij values to the N weights without requiring matrix inversion. The N+1 processors may be reconfigured to multiply the auxiliary signals by the N weights during an active period of the primary signal when the component of interest is present in the primary signal. These weighted auxiliary signals are combined with the primary signal to provide a modified primary signal from which correlated interference in the auxiliary signals has been cancelled.

Abstract: A printed circuit dipole monopulse antenna includes a planar printed circuit substrate having a plurality of dipole antennas and a feed network including a sum and difference hybrid printed thereon. Low sidelobe and monopulse operation are provided along one axis of the antenna.

Abstract: A multidisk spindle includes a plurality of mounting plates affixed to a shaft for mounting an equal plurality of record disks thereon such that the disks are parallel to each other and perpendicular to the rotational axis of the shaft. The shape of the mounting plates and their dimensions relative to the central apertures of the record disks permit the record disks to be mounted to the spindle after it has been fully assembled. In this way the assembled mounting plates may be abraded to provide plane disk-mounting surfaces which are parallel to each other and perpendicular to the axis of rotation.

Abstract: A novel material is disclosed which is the reaction product of acrylic acid and a novoloid fiber. The material has excellent ablative and flame resistant properties.

Abstract: A balun comprises a one-to-two, equal-power, matched power divider having branch transmission lines whose lengths differ by 1/2 wavelength at a design frequency. The shorter of these two branch transmission lines has two 1/4 wavelength long, shorted stub transmission lines branching therefrom 1/4 wavelength apart.

Abstract: A power conversion system is constructed of a plurality of identical Stirling engine modules paired off in opposed, aligned relation with their respective expansion spaces in juxtaposition. Two engine module pairs are arranged in a common plane and in mutually perpendicular relation to create a module group, with plural such module groups stacked together to provide an expanded, self-balanced system with all the modules sharing a common, centrally located thermal energy source. Each module includes a pair of compression positions operating on a common axis intersecting the displacer cylinder axis at right angles. Heat exchangers, either tubes or heat pipes, are disposed within the expansion space to transfer heat from the source to the working fluid therein, thus providing a more idealized Stirling engine cycle.

Abstract: An electrically regeneratable fuel cell is disclosed which has positive electrodes comprised of an alloy of about 50 to 55 percent by weight of silver and about 50 to 45 percent by weight of indium. The fuel cell of this invention is chargeable to a higher voltage at a lower pressure, has a substantially higher capacity, lower internal resistance and is lighter in weight than comparable conventional electrically regeneratable fuel cells.

Abstract: A cover for a semiconductor package includes a composite layer on its upper most surface containing a passive circuit. The passive circuit may include a number of passive components to fulfill various functions such as capacitive coupling and decoupling, resistive pull-up and pull-down, et al. Appropriate terminal points of the passive circuit terminate in contacts which are disposed on the top surface of the composite layer. Terminals are attached to the contacts for interconnecting the passive circuit with terminal leads of the semiconductor package or other circuit components.

Abstract: In a wave soldering apparatus including a station for forming a standing wave of foamed flux, a preheater station, and a standing wave of hot molten solder station, a flux removing apparatus for reducing the thickness of flux on a coated printed circuit board includes an apertured pipe for gently blowing a plurality of streams of air against the foam coated board, the streams acting effectively as a continuous linear stream of air. The airstreams also blow the foamed flux into apertures in the printed circuit board.

Abstract: A driver for driving the anode of a laser diode includes a constant-current differential switch comprising NPN transistors. Two sources supply constant current into the node where the differential switch drives the laser diode: one source supplies bias current through the laser diode; the second provides a current substantially equal to the constant current through the differential switch. When the transistor, which drives the laser diode, is turned on by a modulating signal applied to its base electrode, the current from the second source flows through it into the current source at the common emitter junction. When this transistor is turned off, the current from the second source flows through the laser diode, adding to the bias current therethrough. Under these circumstances, the total current through the laser diode exceeds the threshold for lasing action and the laser diode is turned on.

Abstract: A voltage regulator for controlling the voltage of a bus powered by N solar cell arrays. Digital shunts are coupled to N-1 of the arrays. A linear shunt is coupled to the remaining array. Current passing through the remaining array is sensed by the linear shunt which, in response thereto, turns on and off various ones of the digital shunts to maintain the desired voltage on the bus.

Abstract: A tuning capacitor arrangement for a microwave circuit including, on a substrate, first and second conductors to be capacitively joined. The tuning capacitor arrangement includes first and second capacitors each having connective tabs terminating on the substrate in the space between the first and second conductors. One or more connective pieces electrically connect one or more tabs to the conductors to determine the total capacitance between the first and second conductors.

Abstract: A reflector antenna system with reduced blockage effects is provided by placing a compensating reflector between the surface of the main curved reflector and its primary feed to intercept illuminating radiation which would otherwise be blocked by the feed. The compensating reflector reflects the intercepted radiation with a beam pattern which is essentially identical to the substractive blockage pattern. The compensating reflector is spaced from the main reflecting surface to place its beam pattern in phase opposition to the blockage pattern to cancel common components from the blockage pattern.

Abstract: An improved automatic placement process for placing logic cells in a universal array. Unused basic units are assigned to rows to reduce the congestion of the wiring in high congestion regions of a universal array. These assigned unused basic units are allocated among rows in a pyramidal manner. Those unused basic units allocated to a given row are distributed along that row in a manner to reduce wiring congestion. During a pair exchange portion of the placement process, quality criteria used for deciding whether to exchange two logic cells on different rows include skipped rows in a node, y-span of a node, minimizing the number of logic cells in excess of two in a node on a row, making a longest row shorter and making longer a shortest row or one which is within a tolerance of being a shortest row.