Abstract: A carrier element for a semiconductor chip, in particular to be built into smart cards. The carrier element has a substrate that carries the chip and a stiffening sheet which also carries the chip and has a recess for receiving the chip and its connection leads therein. An edge of the recess is provided with a frame formed integrally from the sheet.

Abstract: The reinforcing steel has a protective coating formed from a first layer of synthetic material and a second layer of aluminum or aluminum alloy between the first layer and the outer surface of the reinforcing steel.

Abstract: A dictation machine having the physical configuration of a telephone handset. A mouth piece and an ear piece are arranged at opposite ends of a elongated housing having a handgrip between the ends. A tape deck is arranged in the handgrip, preferably in a flat face facing in the same direction as the mouth piece and ear piece. A start/stop key is arranged on a side of the handgrip, and other control keys are arranged in transition areas between the deck and the mouth piece or ear piece, so that the keys can be operated by the fingers of a hand which is holding the handset.

Abstract: A direction determining system having a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, a linear antenna array and a fast switching facility, the linear antenna array comprised of at least two antenna elements and the GPS receiver including two Costas Loops. The fast switching facility permits an input signal received by the two antenna elements to be processed and alternately supplied to the Costas Loops in synchronism for measuring the phases of the input signals received nearly simultaneously. The phase difference between the output signals of the two Costas Loops is measured in a phase meter and the pointing angle of the linear antenna array relative to the direction of a GPS satellite is determined by interferometry.

Abstract: A rotation rate measuring instrument is disclosed in which two light beams propagate through a coiled optical fiber in opposite directions. After passing through the optical fiber, the two light beams are combined and directed onto a photodetector. One of the light beams is phase-modulated in a phase-modulator before entering the optical fiber. The modulation frequency is f.sub.m. The output signal of the photodetector is fed to a variable-gain amplifier whose output signal is separated into a signal of frequency f.sub.m and a signal of frequency 2f.sub.m. The rotation rate is derived from the signal of frequency f.sub.m. The signal of frequency 2f.sub.m is applied to a detector whose output is fed to an operational amplifier. The other signal applied to the operational amplifier is a reference signal of amplitude U.sub.R. The operational amplifier controls the gain of the variable-gain amplifier in such a way that the output signal of the detector has the same amplitude as the reference signal U.sub.R.