Abstract: Polymer article having a thin coating on at least one of its side, the coating including a first coating of SiOxCyHz which is a plasma polymerized tetramethylsilane deposited on the surface on the polymer article, the x value being between 0 and 1.7, the y value being between 0.5 and 0.8, the z value being between 0.35 and 0.6 for the first SiOxCyHz coating and a second coating of SiOxCyHz which is a plasma polymerized tetramethylsilane deposited on the surface on the first coating, the x value being between 1.7 and 1.99, the y value being between 0.2 and 0.7, the z value being between 0.2 and 0.35 for the second SiOxCyHz coating and in that the thickness of the first coating is from about 1 nanometer to about 15 nanometers and in that the thickness of the second coating is from about 10 nanometers to about 100 nanometers.

Abstract: Polymer article having a thin coating on at least one of its side, characterized in that said coating comprises a first coating of SiOxCyH2 which is a plasma polymerized tetramethylsilane deposited on the surface on said polymer article, the x value being between 0 and 1.7, the y value being between 0.5 and 0.8, the z value being between 0.35 and 0.6 for said first SiOxCyHz coating and a second coating of SiOxCyHz which is a plasma polymerized tetramethylsilane deposited on the surface on said first coating, the x value being between 1.7 and 1.99, the y value being between 0.2 and 0.7, the z value being between 0.2 and 0.35 for said second SiOxCyHz coating and in that the thickness of said first coating is from about 1 nanometer to about 15 nanometers and in that the thickness of said second coating is from about 10 nanometers to about 100 nanometers, preferentially around 30 nanometers.

Abstract: A method of cleaning a lubrication system of a machine includes removing existing lubricant and circulating a cleaning fluid through the lubrication system. After the cleaning fluid has been removed, a neutralising fluid is circulated through the lubrication system, whereby the neutralising fluid combines or reacts with the cleaning fluid to produce a fluid that does not adversely affect the lubricating qualities of fresh lubricating fluid. An apparatus (1) for carrying out the method includes first (3) and second (15) reservoirs to receive the cleaning fluid and neutralising fluid respectively, one or more connectors to connect the apparatus to the machine, one or more pumps adapted to circulate cleaning fluid and neutralising fluid and a controller to control the transfer of the cleaning fluid and neutralising fluid from the reservoirs to the machine.

Abstract: An integrated circuit having structure for isolating circuit sections having at least one differing characteristic. The structure includes a chip guard ring for each circuit section having the at least one differing characteristic. Providing multiple chip guard rings allows for isolation of circuit sections and prevention of ionic contamination, but without increased expense and size. In addition, it is practicable with any IC. The invention also may include an interconnect for electrical connectivity about a chip guard ring.

Abstract: An improved analog to digital converter is disclosed incorporating a flash converter and a charge-sharing pipelined chain converter. The invention incorporates three important circuits including a novel voltage reference steering circuit, a novel high performance low power comparator circuit and a novel digital calibration for compensation circuit. The low power is accomplished by turning on compare circuits only when comparing (controlled by timing circuits that are common to all comparators) and by a low power RAM that properly aligns the converted data. The converter operates in a pipelined manor and requires multiple sample and hold circuits for the compare circuits. The improved analog to digital converter incorporates test and calibration to compensate for variations experience during operation and manufacture of the improved analog to digital converter.