Abstract: A light source includes a source of high frequency power, an electrodelsss lamp and a termination fixture for coupling power to the lamp, the fixture having an outer conductor and an inner conductor whose length is adjustable for providing dynamic matching of the impedance of the lamp during the operating mode to the output impedance of the source. Variations in the power level from the source, such as is desirable in providing lamp brightness selectivity, vary both the real and imaginary components of the lamp impedance, and corresponding adjustments of the inner conductor length provide a tuning technique to compensate for these variations.

Abstract: A light source includes an electrodeless lamp having an envelope for enclosing a volatile fill material which emits light upon vaporization and excitation, a source of power at a high frequency and a termination fixture coupled to the source. The fixture has inner and outer conductors which have dimensions such that the lamp is located in the high field region at the end of the conductors. When the high frequency power is applied to the fixture, a voltage standing wave is formed which initiates vaporization and excitation of the fill material. The termination load impedance which is that of the lamp changes from a lossy open circuit to a finite value when vaporization and excitation occur. An impedance matching device is provided for matching the running lamp impedance to the output impedance of the source.

Abstract: A limiting amplifier includes an operational amplifier with three feedback loops. One loop controls the gain of the amplifier when the output signal is between the upper and lower limit. Each of the other two feedback loops comprises the high gain summing amplifier in series with a diode, each summing amplifier comparing the output signal with one of the limit signals. The summing amplifiers insure hard limiting when the output signal tends to exceed the upper or lower limit.

Abstract: An electrodeless lamp is excited by high frequency power in a termination fixture having an inner and an outer conductor, the lamp being located in the high field region at the end of the conductors. A source of ultraviolet radiation is located near the lamp and is activated momentarily when the lamp is to be excited. The radiation assists in initiating breakdown and excitation of the fill material in the lamp.

Abstract: A scrambler for a television system alternately inverts the phase of the carrier which is modulated by the television signal. A binary coding signal controls the manner of the carrier-phase inversion. Phase inversion is obtained by combining the modulated normal carrier with an out of phase carrier having a maximum peak amplitude greater than the peak amplitude of the modulated carrier. The coding signal also frequency modulates the carrier for the scrambled television signal thereby providing a key for decoding at the television receiver. The decoder at the receiver reproduces the coding signal from the scrambled signal, removes the frequency modulation and combines the scrambled signal with a reproduced normal carrier at the time intervals corresponding to the presence of the phase-inverted carrier.

Abstract: An improved wheel assembly includes a pair of contact bearings which are displaced from the vertical center line of the wheel for reducing frictional forces and the required torque in rotating the wheel. The bearings contact the inner surface of a drum having a pair of side plates, one of which has a central aperture. A weight bearing sleeve is located through the aperture and includes sleeve extension arms which are affixed to the contact bearings. A rotatable axle is located within the sleeve and extends through the drum so that the axle may be affixed to the other side plate of the drum. The drum thus rotates with the axle, and the vehicle weight is transferred from the sleeve to the drum by the two contact bearings which rotate in place.

Abstract: In a light source in which an electrodeless lamp is excited by high frequency power coupled into a lamp termination fixture having an inner and outer conductor, the fixture has a dynamically variable characteristic impedance, thereby facilitating dynamic matching of the variable impedance of the lamp during the lamp-off to lamp-run conditions to the output impedance of the power source. This feature is possible because the position of the inner conductor with respect to the outer conductor is controlled as a function of the heat generated within the fixture. The inner conductor is made of a conductive material having a non-uniform coefficient of thermal expansion. When the fixture is cold, the lamp and the lamp-coupled end of the inner conductor are substantially concentric to the outer conductor thereby creating a high characteristic impedance to match the high starting lamp impedance to the source impedance.

Abstract: A termination fixture for an electrodeless lamp has dimensions which match the output impedance of a coupled high frequency power source to the real impedance of the lamp when in a discharge condition. The fixture may consist of a pair of coaxial conductors, and the lamp forms the termination load for the ends of the conductors. The length of the conductors is such as to place the lamp one quarter wavelength from the opposite ends of the conductors. The diameters of the conductors are such as to produce a fixture characteristic impedance which matches the lamp impedance to the source output impedance.

Abstract: An optical switch is described which has particular utility in communication systems utilizing light as a modulated carrier. The switch is susceptible to construction as an integrated optical device and may be formed with a planar substrate and an optically transparent film on a surface of that substrate which has an index of refraction higher than that of the substrate. This construction forms a planar optical waveguide. A plurality of parallel optical fiber waveguides are coupled into one side of the planar optical waveguide by conventional techniques and a like plurality of parallel output optical fiber waveguides are coupled out at an opposite side. An integrated beam deflection element is formed adjacent to each separate one of the pluralities of input and output optical fiber waveguides and is associated with the optical fiber waveguide. The beam deflection elements are each capable of deflecting light rays incident on the element through a plurality of discrete deflection angles.

Abstract: A jamming circuit for making unusable the television signal of a preselected channel includes a bridged T-trap filter having a pair of high Q circuits adapted to be tuned to the carrier frequency of the preselected channel, and a device for cyclically sweeping each tunable circuit through the video carrier frequency for the preselected channel. Each circuit is varied approximately .+-. 500 KHz from the carrier frequency, the cyclic sweeping rate being 14 KHz for one tunable circuit and 16 KHz for the other. Cyclic tuning is achieved by using varactors as part of the tuning capacity for each circuit, the varactors receiving a sawtooth waveform produced by two free-running oscillators. As a result of the jamming circuit, the television signal is modulated at a 14 KHz, 16 KHz and 2 KHz rate, thereby producing severe amplitude and phase distortion.

Abstract: An apparatus for measuring the plating thickness of a thin gold coating on a substrate such as a sheet or thin wire is described. The gold plating thickness, which may range from one to about one hundred and fifty microinches, is measured with an X-ray analysis technique in real-time as the plating of a wire is in process. The gold plated wire is exposed to X-rays of a type and intensity selected to stimulate X-ray emission from both the gold plating and the substrate with energies which permit energy-dispersive analysis. A ratio between the X-ray energies attributable to the substrate and gold plating is employed to determine the thickness of the gold plating with a generally applicable calibration curve. The accurate and rapid gold plating thickness measurement enables the monitoring the regulation of the gold plating thickness with a feedback control in a highly accurate manner.

Abstract: A waveform synthesizer for generating analog waveforms is provided utilizing all MOSFET integrated circuit logic. The synthesizer includes an n stage clocked shift register in which the input to the first shift register stage is the inverted output of the last shift register stage. The output of each stage controls the state of a preselected weighting unit field effect transistor which provides a preselected output whenever the corresponding shift register stage is a logic 1. The outputs of all the weighting unit transistors are summed and applied to a summing field effect transistor.

Abstract: A printed circuit board connector includes a plurality of contact members each of which is formed of one or more pieces of spring biased material. A contact member includes a cam portion and a contact portion which are generally rotatable about an intermediate pivot point. The cam portion extends normally into the space to be occupied by a printed circuit board when inserted into the connector. The contact portion is positioned normally within the connector body so as to be free from contact with the entering circuit board until after the board contacts the cam portion of the contact member when nearly completely inserted. At this time, the cam and contact portions are rotated about the pivot point by the action of the printed circuit board bringing the contact portion into mechanical and electrical contact with a conductor on the surface of the printed circuit board.

Abstract: In a magnetic domain memory, a domain detector system includes a passive domain splitter in a domain propagation track, a first detector in the propagation track for detecting one of the domains from the splitter, and a second detector in an auxiliary propagation track which extends from the splitter, the detector outputs being combined to enhance the total output signal. The relative angular orientation of the detectors may be varied to provide any desired signal shaping. The passive splitter has features which ensure reliable domain splitting characteristics.

Abstract: A contactless ignition system includes a free running oscillator which generates an output timing pulse to a pulse generator and an ignition coil whenever the oscillations of a saturable core transformer and a series resonant circuit which is driven by the feedback voltage induced in the transformer secondary winding cease. In the free running state, the feedback voltage sustains the oscillator operation at a frequency fixed by the resonant circuit. A disk, having a plurality of permanent magnets evenly spaced around its periphery, is affixed to the distributor shaft and disposed within the vicinity of the saturable core of the transformer. As the disk rotates, the magnetic field of each magnet, as it passes the vicinity of the core, momentarily saturates the transformer core. Saturation of the core reduces the feedback voltage below the oscillation sustaining level and, consequently, causes the oscillator to generate an output pulse which is synchronous with the engine speed.

Abstract: A magnetic field drive coil arrangement includes a hollow rectangular coil form having a pair of rectangular openings at opposite lengthwise ends of the form, a first coil wound around the coil form such that the turns of the coil in the central region of the coil form are parallel to the longitudinal axis and a second coil wound over the central portion of the first coil. The portion of the turns of the first coil which are between the access openings and the second coil curve away from the longitudinal axis of the coil form so as not to interfere with the access openings. The access openings facilitate the access to the cylindrical domain memories disposed within the coil form and the flow of a coolant through the form. Advantageous methods of fabricating the coil arrangement are described.

Abstract: A magnetic domain memory system includes a domain propagation track, having a plurality of minor loops of equal domain capacity, first and second major loops of equal domain capacity and first and second groups of transfer switches which couple each minor loop to the first and second major loops, respectively, and a control system, responding to asynchronous commands, to access any selected record in the minor loop through the first group of unused switches which the circulating record encounters. The accessed records are updated in the major loops, each of which includes a domain detector, generator and annihilator, and the updated records are transferred back into the locations in the minor loops which the original records occupied. The design of the dual access memory provides domain bit synchronization which means that after any domain bit makes one full circulation around the major loop, the bit may be transferred into the same location in the minor loop which the bit originally occupied.

Abstract: A cylindrical electrode for use in focusing and deflecting an electron beam is provided about its central section with eight mutually separated electrode segments arranged in a diametrical fashion for deflecting the beam, and with first and second cylindrical electrode sections at opposite ends of the electrode for focusing the electron beam.

Abstract: A transducer in a telephone handset converts acoustic signals into a digital pulse code. The transducer receives enable pulses from a concentrator system which services a group of telephones and converts each of these pulses into a group of time separated pulses having equal pulse widths. These pulses are applied to a binary coded variable capacitive coupling device. An acoustic device converts the acoustic signal into a related displacement of an output member which in turn couples to a movable capacitive plate in the capacitive coupling device. The output of the transducer is a binary word related to the value of the acoustic signal, the word being generated with each occurrence of the enable pulse. The concentrator has a clock and a pulse distributor for providing enable pulses at different intervals for each telephone set being services.

Abstract: A device which is useful in determining the efficacy of various insect attractants and repellants. In particular, the device is useful for determining any time relationships which occur during the use of those attractants and repellants. The device has a web of "fly paper" which is continuously moved past an aperture in an outer housing at a known rate. A fresh supply of fly paper is stored in a roll at one end of the web and is supported on a first spindle journaled in the outer housing. The used fly paper is rolled and stored in a take-up roll at the other end of the web supported on a similarly journaled second spindle. The fly paper may be removed from the device and unrolled. By knowing the rate at which the fly paper was advanced originally, a time-dependent profile of the insects captured may then be determined. Furthermore, since the insects remain intact on the fly paper, the insects can be classified readily and time-dependent profiles by species and breed can also be made.