Abstract: The surfaces of a recorded disc are coated with a thin layer of lubricant by forming in an atomizer chamber droplets of the lubricant supported in air. The droplets are formed by passing a flow of air through a supply of the lubricant in the atomizer chamber at a rate and pressure such that the air causes the lubricant to be blown into the space above the supply as fine droplets. The air laden with the lubricant droplets flows out of the atomizer housing to a pair of nozzles in a coating chamber. The nozzles direct the air laden with the lubricant droplets onto the surface of the recorded disc which passes between the nozzles. Excess lubricant which does not coat the disc is collected in the coating chamber and carried back to the atomizer housing.

Abstract: An improved method for replicating a spiral groove pattern. The pattern is recorded in a photoresist layer which is then developed to reproduce the pattern in the photoresist layer. The pattern is transferred to a metal layer and formed in the surface of a plastic substrate. The improvement comprises the additional steps of uniformly irradiating the photoresist layer and removing the irradiated photoresist surface layer.

Abstract: A Kelvin test fixture for electrically contacting miniature, two terminal, leadless, electrical components assures the creation of good contact between the test fixture and the component to be tested by providing for the insertion of the component to be tested directly into the test fixture in a manner which creates a wiping action between the conductors of the test fixture and the terminals of the component to be tested. The test fixture attaches to appropriate parameter test equipment such as an RLC test bridge. The fixture has a small stable capacitance which may be deducted from the measured parameters by appropriate mathematical manipulations to yield the actual electrical parameters of the component under test.

Abstract: An MNOS nonvolatile semiconductive memory device of the type which has a thick gate insulating layer overlapping the source and drain regions and a thin gate insulator layer in the memory portion of the device includes a region of relatively high concentration of impurities of the same type conductivity as the substrate in the portion of the channel which is beneath the thin gate insulating layer. This increases the values of both the low threshold and the high threshold states of the memory portion of the device so as to increase the threshold voltage window of the device.

Abstract: An improved method for replicating a spiral groove pattern. The pattern is recorded in a photoresist layer which is then developed to reproduce the pattern in the photoresist layer. The pattern is transferred to a metal layer and formed in the surface of a plastic substrate. The improvement comprises the additional steps of asymmetrically irradiating the photoresist layer and removing the irradiated photoresist surface layer to produce a photoresist layer of uniform thickness.

Abstract: A method for passivating the surface of a recorded metal substrate in which the substrate is immersed for 5-30 minutes in a 35.degree. C.-85.degree. C. aqueous bath containing from about 5 to 30 g/l of an alkaline cleaner and from about 2.5 to 20 g/l of sodium dichromate, potassium dichromate, sodium permanganate, potassium permanganate, or mixtures thereof.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for outgassing raw materials includes the steps of and means for heating the material to a temperature of about 800.degree. C. and maintaining that temperature for a first bake out period during which the material is maintained at a pressure of about 200 millitorr and for a second bake out period during which the material is maintained at a pressure of about 5 millitorr or less. During the first bake out period, an inert gas is backstreamed through the raw material.

Abstract: An apparatus for determining the gaseous surface area of a material. The apparatus incorporates, inter alia, a novel manifold structure that permits the testing of multiple samples of the material in quick succession.

Abstract: It has been found that metal stampers, and more particularly nickel stampers, can be simultaneously hardened and passivated by cathodically treating the stampers in an aqueous bath of a passivation agent.

Abstract: A plasma etching device having a quartz cylinder surrounded by RF energized electrodes or coils, contains a slotted aluminum tube into which wafers for etching are supported and processed. Each of the slots of the aluminum tube is provided with a shield extending longitudinally of the slot to intercept optical radiation, including deleterious ultraviolet (UV) radiation, of the plasma from entering the tube while still permitting the active etchant particles to pass into the tube to act on the wafers.

Abstract: A metal nitride oxide semiconductor (MNOS) memory device having improved memory retention capability is described. Improved memory retention is obtained by ion implanting a non-doping material, such as argon or nitrogen, or a low concentration of an N type dopant, such as phosphorus, into the oxide before depositing the nitride layer. It is believed that the ion implantation results in a nitride-oxide interface conducive to charge storage. The MNOS device produced has a considerably improved memory retention characteristic when compared with an MNOS device which did not have the ion implantation.

Abstract: A method of optically testing the lateral dimensions of a pattern of material disposed on a substrate comprises applying the material to both the main area of the substrate and a test area on the same substrate, and selectively removing the material from both areas on the substrate simultaneously to form respectively the pattern on the main area and a diffraction grating on the test area. The diffraction grating is exposed to a beam of light, and the intensity of two of the diffracted beams is measured to obtain a ratio signal (I.sub.2 /I.sub.1), which is then utilized to determine the lateral dimensional tolerance of the integrated circuit pattern.

Abstract: Direct, but guided, natural convection circulates the treatment solution in a treatment tank during an exothermic reaction because the exothermic-reaction zone is horizontally isolated from a heat transfer or solution temperature adjustment zone. A vertically extending partition system in the middle portion (top-to-bottom) of the tank prevents the solution from flowing direclty between the exothermic-reaction zone and the heat transfer zone thereby limiting solution flow between these zones to the portions of the tank above and below the flow obstructing part of the partition system. This induces macroconvective circulation of the solution within the tank and obviates the need for mechanical stirring during material treatment.

Abstract: A method in integrated circuit technology of depositing an adherent aluminum film that does not develop significant protrusions, such as "hillocks" and "whiskers", during or following annealing. The aluminum is deposited by evaporation or sputtering techniques while sufficient dry oxygen is introduced periodically into the deposition chamber to form alernating layers of aluminum and oxygen-doped aluminum consisting of no more than 10 atomic percent oxygen. Photolithographically patterning such a laminated film into the appropriate configuration of conducting lines and bond pads, and subsequently annealing such as a laminated film at temperatures from 450.degree. C. to 560.degree. C. in forming gas, results in aluminum surfaces that are free of protrusions with heights above 0.5 .mu.m and in films that have relatively low resistivity, i.e., resistivity that is less than 1.8 times the resistivity of bulk aluminum. The laminated films range in thickness between 8000 to 25,000 angstroms.

Abstract: An apparatus for molding recorded discs includes a pair of mold plates having opposed surfaces on which stampers can be mounted. A separate center hold down member fits into an opening in each mold plate to secure the inner edge of the stamper to the mold plate. At least one of the center hold down members has indicia forming means on its surface, either as raised projections or indentations in the surface, to form a desired indicia in the surface of the disc as it is being molded.

Abstract: Improved aqueous photoresist compositions comprising a water-soluble polymeric material and a photosensitive cross-linking agent, therefore, having the formula: ##STR1## wherein, A and B are independently amino or nitro and M is an alkali metal or ammonium ion, and process of exposing and developing same.

Abstract: An optical recording medium comprises a light reflecting material which is coated with a light absorbing layer and overcoated with a thin, amorphous, coherent layer of an optically transparent and chemically and thermally stable material such as silicon dioxide. During recording, portions of the light absorbing layer are ablated by a modulated focussed light beam, thereby exposing portions of the reflecting layer while leaving the overcoat layer intact. Information is recorded in the form of a reflective-antireflective pattern. Dust particles and other surface contaminants can be wiped or washed off the recording medium without damage to the light absorbing layer.

Abstract: An optical recording medium which comprises a light reflective layer, a light transmissive layer and a light absorptive layer where the light transmissive layer is comprised of an organic material which has a melting, sublimation or decomposition temperature at least 300.degree. C. less than that of the material comprising the absorptive layer and where the absorptive layer has a melting temperature of at least 1000.degree. C. Information is recorded as bubbles in the absorptive layer. This storage mechanism produces topographical features which are suitable for replication, thus allowing direct replication of the recorded information.

Abstract: A non-volatile memory structure of the floating gate type is described wherein current carriers are injected onto the floating gate from the control gate as distinguished from the prior art which injects current carriers into the floating gate from the substrate. This invention teaches that by tailoring the capacitance between the control gate and the floating gate and the capacitance between the floating gate and the substrate different field intensities are created in the region between the floating gate and the control gate and in the region between the substrate and the floating gate. When the field intensity across the capacitor formed between the control gate and the floating gate is greater than the field intensity across the capacitor formed between the floating gate and the substrate, current carriers will be injected onto the floating gate from the control gate.

Abstract: An improved method of reproducing a spiral groove pattern in the surface of a plastic disc wherein the intersections of the surface of a metal article generated during the replication process are filled in to form concave junctions.