Abstract: An excisional biopsy needle assembly for use in combination with a stereotactic platform for excising tissue from the interior of the body. The biopsy needle includes a rotatable flexible blade that is capable of transforming between a contracted configuration for piercing into the interior of the body and an expanded configuration in which the flexible blade is expanded relative to the shaft of the needle for excising tissue. The needle assembly may be mounted in a stereotactic needle for a breast biopsy procedure that digitally directs the needle tip into a lesion with the flexible blades in a contracted configuration, then expands the flexible blades to the expanded configuration and rotates the blades thus excising tissue in a region having a cross sectional dimension that is large in relation to the cross section of the needle shaft. The excised tissue is extracted from the needle tip through an aspiration channel.

Abstract: A projection exposure apparatus for exposing a semiconductor wafer to a pattern, formed on a reticle, using a projection lens system. An alignment optical system is disposed at a backside of the wafer which is remote from the projection lens system. The alignment optical system detects an alignment mark provided on the frontside of the wafer from the backside of the wafer. Thus the wafer alignment mark is detected without being adversely affected by integrated circuit layers, e.g. photoresist, metallization, etc. applied to the principal surface (frontside) of the wafer, and the reticle and wafer can be aligned accurately. Any tilting or wedging of the wafer, i.e. non-normality to the incident light beam, is detected and corrected for.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for “copy-once” of a digital video signal uses a watermark in the video signal. The embedded watermark has two versions: one indicates copy-never and a second indicates copy-once, the difference being a single watermark bit. The watermark carries additional bits representing a digitized attribute (image characteristic) of a particular video frame of the video signal, for instance an average value of the amplitude of a video field. The frame whose attribute is carried in the watermark has a field (or frame) marker, which is a special signal located in the overscan portion of the frame. A compliant video recorder verifies the watermark and the copy-once bit, extracts the associated attribute from the watermark, and compares it to the measured attribute of the marked video frame. Only if the extracted attribute value and the measured attribute value match is recording enabled.

Abstract: The embodiments describe linear motor configurations having a polygonal shaped motor coil. The motor coil is e.g. hexagonal, diamond shaped, or double diamond shaped. Coil units are formed in a closed electrically conductive band surrounding a void. Coil units are formed e.g. from flex circuit material or by winding in a racetrack or folded tip fashion. Coil units are arranged in an overlapped shingle like manner to form a motor coil with substantially uniform thickness and high conductor density, providing high efficiency. Due to its substantially uniform thickness, the motor coil has a substantially flat cross section that allows the motor coil to be easily installed and removed from its associated linear magnetic track. The embodiments enable both moving coil and moving magnet linear motor configurations.

Abstract: Defects in a patterned substrate are detected by inspection with a charged particle beam inspection tool which generates an image of a portion of the patterned substrate and compares the image with a reference in order to identify any defects in the patterned substrate. Parameters of the tool are optimized to improve image uniformity and contrast, particularly voltage contrast. Prior to imaging an area of the substrate, the tool charges an area surrounding the image area to eliminate or reduce the effects caused by asymmetrical charging in the surrounding area. The tool alternates between charging the surrounding area and imaging the image area to produce a plurality of images of the image area, which are then averaged. The result is a highly uniform image with improved contrast for accurate defect detection.

Abstract: An amplifier circuit comprises a first amplifier stage controlling a second gain stage which is coupled between a voltage input node and an output node. A frequency compensating circuit is coupled between a compensating circuit node of the gain stage and a control input of the gain stage. The gain stage comprises first and second output devices arranged such that for a given gate voltage, the output current from the first device is greater than the output current from the second device. The output devices have a common source coupled to the input node and a common gate coupled to the first amplifier stage. The drain of the first output device is coupled to the output node and the drain of the second output device is coupled to the compensating circuit node with a resistance device connected between the two drains.

Abstract: A filter circuit comprising a phase advance circuit acting as a high pass filter, a phase retard circuit acting as a low pass filter, and an amplifier connected in series between an input and an output. A positive feedback loop is provided between the input and the output. The electrical characteristics of the phase advance and phase retard circuits are such that interaction between the phase advance and phase retard circuits is substantially prevented. This may be achieved by providing the phase advance and phase retard circuits with simple output buffers or providing internal closed loop negative feedback paths to provide low output impedances. The phase advance and phase retard circuits may comprise multipliers configured to compensate for variations in the values of resistive and capacitive components of the filter circuits.

Abstract: A glide head includes a transducer mounted on a side surface, e.g., the leading side, as opposed to the top surface of the glide head slider. Thus, a suspension arm may be mounted to the top surface of a small glide head slider, e.g., thirty percent, without interference from the transducer. The glide head slider may include a notch or groove on the side surface into which the transducer is at least partially inserted to assist in securely mounting the transducer to the glide head slider. The height of the glide head slider is increased to accommodate the thickness of the notch, and thus, the glide head slider may have a height to length ratio of forty percent or greater. For example, a thirty percent glide head slider may have a height to length ratio of approximately seventy percent. The transducer is laterally mounted to the side surface of the glide head slider such that an axis between the collectors of the transducer is horizontally oriented.

Abstract: A preheating circuit for a fluorescent lamp is provided. The preheating circuit includes a filament detecting circuit indirectly detecting a filament resistance in a fluorescent lamp by measuring a filament voltage and a filament current, a pulse generation circuit providing pulses of one of a first frequency and a second frequency determined by the detected filament resistance and a specific filament resistance, and a filament resonance circuit operating the fluorescent lamp at an operating frequency determined by the pulse generation circuit. Therefore, the filament resonance circuit operates at the first frequency to preheat the fluorescent lamp when the detected filament resistance is smaller than the specific resistance. The filament resonance circuit operates at the second frequency to operate the fluorescent lamp when the detected filament resistance is one of a first value being larger than and a second value being equal to that of the specific resistance.

Abstract: A system and method of information dissemination that permits the user to listen to the specific content of information when and where he or she wants to. A radio or television receiver system receives information from an FM subcarrier, a television vertical blanking interval transmission, a television separate audio program transmission or a dedicated channel and stores the transmitted information in a memory. A user interface allows selection from the memory of the stored information via a set of menus controlling a hierarchical database, so as to access particular items of information. Typically the system includes RAM and/or a storage medium such as a digital audio tape,a magneto-optical mini-disk, a magnetic disk or optical disk, sufficient to store information for 10 hours of audio. A decompression device, accepts the accessed compressed digital audio information items which may have been encrypted and transforms them into spoken speech.

Abstract: A driver circuit for a discharge lamp. A voltage source delivers a variable voltage to a constant current source which is connected to the lamp. The delivered voltage is varied to stabilize the supply of power to the lamp. The delivered voltage may be controlled in response to variations in lamp voltage.

Abstract: A command trajectory drives a stage to produce a smooth motion while minimizing any vibrations or oscillations of the structure. The command trajectory provides an acceleration and a deceleration that have derivatives, known as the jerk, equal to zero at the beginning and end of the acceleration and deceleration periods. Because the jerk is equal to zero at the beginning and end of acceleration and deceleration, the influence of the reactive forces on the positioning system's structure is reduced, thereby minimizing oscillation of the structure. Moreover, the jerk is continuous throughout the acceleration and deceleration periods, resulting in a smooth continuous motion of the stage. The jerk on the stage during acceleration and deceleration has an adjustable duration to reduce the structural disturbances and decrease settling time.

Abstract: A portable computing device (e.g. a notebook type computer) also includes communications features including a pager receiver and a radio frequency modem which are supported by allowing the device, under application program control, to resume operation from a suspend (sleep) state upon receipt of a paging message. Additionally, depending upon the contents of the paging message, various application programs can be automatically launched in the main processor. Under application program control, the device can operate in a background state with for instance the main screen, its backlight and the keyboard powered down, but with the main processor running at full speed for unattended operation. Under application program control in normal or background mode, the device can request that the unit suspend operation without user intervention, for battery power savings during unattended operations.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for conditioning a pad used for chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) are provided, that allow the conditioning to be performed in situ without stopping the polishing. A retractable pad-conditioning structure, e.g., conditioning tips, is positioned along the bottom perimeter of a wafer carrier. While polishing a surface of a wafer held in the middle of the wafer carrier, whenever the removal rate drops below a permissible value, the pad-conditioning structure, which rotates in unison with the wafer carrier, is lowered to contact the pad to condition the pad's surface. Since an area of the pad used for polishing the wafer is always surrounded by already conditioned pad areas and the area for polishing moves as the wafer carrier moves around on the pad surface, a substantially uniform removal rate is maintained. When the pad is sufficiently conditioned, the conditioning structure is retracted until the pad needs to be conditioned again.

Abstract: A two-axis stage assembly includes a generally planar horizontally mounted base plate; a stage plate generally parallel to the base plate, the stage plate having a first axis and second orthogonal axis; a set of spaced bearings depending from a bottom surface of said stage plate, the bearings each having an arcuate bottom surface in rocking contact with a facing support surface of the base plate; a joint attached to the bottom surface of the stage plate and pivotably mounting each bearing, the joint being positioned at the center of curvature of the arcuate bottom surface of the associated bearing; and where an axial movement of the stage plate rocks the bearing arcuate bottom surfaces with respect to the facing support surface of the base plate.

Abstract: A VGA (or other component video signal) output, e.g. from a computer or DVD player, is subject to protection so it is viewable on a VGA monitor. If the component video signal is converted to composite video (e.g. television) the resulting television picture is of substantially degraded quality, thereby inhibiting viewing and/or copying. This protects for instance copyrighted material in the VGA format from unauthorized use. The protection modifies the horizontal or vertical synchronization signals in the VGA video in such a way that there is no adverse affect on a typical VGA monitor. Most or all VGA to television converters and/or television sets and VCR's suffer from loss of synchronization, resulting in an unviewable picture. Methods and apparatuses for defeating this copy protection are provided herein.

Abstract: A method and structure for implementing a DRAM memory array as a second level cache memory in a computer system. The computer system includes a central processing unit (CPU), a first level SRAM cache memory, a CPU bus coupled to the CPU, and a second level cache memory which includes a DRAM array coupled to the CPU bus. When accessing the DRAM array, row access and column decoding operations are performed in a self-timed asynchronous manner. Predetermined sequences of column select operations are then performed in a synchronous manner with respect to a clock signal. A widened data path is provided to the DRAM array, effectively increasing the data rate of the DRAM array. By operating the DRAM array at a higher data rate than the CPU bus, additional time is provided for precharging the DRAM array. As a result, the precharging of the DRAM array is transparent to the CPU bus. A structure and method control the refresh and internal operations of the DRAM array.

Abstract: A device providing reverse polarization protection for a battery having both positive and negative terminals disposed at one end of the battery (e.g., a 9 volt “transistor radio” battery). The device is adapted for insertion between the battery terminals and the spring contacts in a battery housing. The device is made from an electrically insulating material (e.g., plastic), and has at least two openings of unequal size defined through it. The first opening has a diameter larger than that of a negative terminal of the battery, while the second opening has a diameter larger than that of a positive terminal of the battery. The second opening is sized such that the negative terminal of the battery cannot pass through it, thus providing the required mechanical interference for reverse polarity protection. The thickness of the device is less than the height of the battery terminals.

Abstract: Copy protection for composite video signals is well known. Copy protection, while it does not prohibit making a copy per se, does render any copy (recording) of the video signal relatively unviewable so that the viewer's enjoyment of the picture is severely reduced or none. Methods for reducing the effects and/or defeating copy protection are also known. The present method and apparatus reduce effects of added copy protection pulses by further adding other pulses that counteract the gain reduction caused by the copy protection pulses of the type known as automatic gain control (AGC) or pseudo-sync pulses.

Abstract: An amplifying circuit and associated method that outputs a distortion-free signal. The circuit includes an output amplifier driven by two intermediate amplifiers having differing gain factors. The intermediate amplifiers are coupled via an attenuator, a phase shifter, a signal splitter, and signal combiner and produces a predistortion signal that cancels the distortion signal generated from the output amplifier. Another similar amplifying circuit includes an additional combiner and splitter loop, and independently cancels the distortion signal generated by the first intermediate amplifier and the distortion signal generated by the output amplifier.