Abstract: A telescopic flashlight that includes a housing that is telescopic and hand-held, a battery interface that is disposed in the housing and interfaces with at least one battery, a bulb interface that is disposed relative to the housing, electrically communicates with the battery interface, and interfaces with a bulb, and circuity that is disposed in the housing and electrically communicates the bulb interface with the battery interface. The housing includes a handle portion that is held by a user and a body portion that is telescopically attached to, and extends from and retracts into, the handle portion thereof. The battery interface includes an on/off slide switch, a coil spring, and first, second, and third electrical connectors. The bulb interface includes a head, a bulb socket, and a beacon. The circuity includes positive and negative telescoping rods.
Abstract: A ladder-shaped subassembly for use in assembling a subfloor for an athletic floor that is anchored, resilient, ventilatable, and DIN certifiable. Long nailing strips form the long members of the ladder-shape while shorter transverse anchor strips secured below the long members form the rung members of the ladder shape. The anchor strips have resilient pads secured to their lower face. The ladder-shaped subassemblies are positioned on a base so that the long members are abutting and the long members of the subassemblies are spaced apart from each other approximately the same distance as they are spaced from each other on the subassembly thereby creating an open channel through which ventilating air can flow between the flooring above the subassemblies and the base below the subassemblies. Anchors engage the anchor strips so as to permit the downward flexure of the floor but limit the upward rebound of the floor.
Abstract: An erosion fence installation attachment for ditchers and trenchers that is short in length and articulated to pivot in pitch and yaw so as to permit the attachment to follow a ditcher through gullies over mounds and around arcs. The attachment is provided with a barrier material roll unwind, a resilient guide that guides the barrier material into a ditch formed by the ditcher so that the barrier material is pressed against the sides and bottom of the ditch to form an open channel, a first ditch fill disk that pushes fill material into the ditch and into the channel formed in the barrier material, a second ditch fill disk that pushes fill material from the opposite side of the ditch and onto and over the barrier material on that side of the ditch to form a wrap around the fill material deposited by the first fill disk so as to form an elongate anchoring pouch filled with fill material along the bottom of the ditch.
Abstract: In a surface mount LED chips mounted on an insulating substrate, plated through conduits to interconnect the chips on both sides are placed at the corners of the outer terminals at two horizontal ends. The depressions caused by wire-bonding the chip to the terminals are lined up vertically with the corner conduits to reduce horizontal dimension.
Abstract: A readily detachable and attachable saddle bag for motorcycles and other vehicles. The saddle bag is securable to a plane defining mounting plate that matches indices on a saddle bag and quick release couplings so that the the saddle bag can be quickly attached to and detached from the mounting plate. The mounting plate is low cost and is provided with means for securing the plate to a flat surface or for attaching transition links to the mounting plate for securing the mounting plate to the irregular structures such as the frame of a motorcycle or the like. The bag is provided with detachable wheels and pulling or carrying straps and an attachment for joining two similar saddle bags together.
Abstract: The invention provides a shock-absorbing system, comprising an oil cell having bellows-shaped walls and a bi-fluid cell, the cells being in fluid communication via at least one flow restriction conduit.
Abstract: The optical system of a scanner comprising at least four reflecting mirrors, a focusing lens and an image sensor has its lens placed outside the area encircled by the reflecting mirrors so that the reflecting mirrors can be placed closer in the vertical direction. Thus, the vertical dimension of the scanner is made smaller.
Abstract: A conveyor with narrow apertures enables barcode scanning devices to be mounted under the conveying surface so they may scan and read data from tags and labels located on the bottom surface of material being transported by the conveyor. Multiple apertures and scanning devices are oriented at different angles to each other to assure that at least one of the scanning devices has an optimal orientation to reliably read barcodes or labels which may be randomly oriented on the conveying surface.
Abstract: More than one photodetectors, each sensitive to different wavelengths, are integrated on a common semiconductor substrate. The different photodetectors can be stacked over one another or placed laterally on the common substrate. Gratings may be placed over each photodetector to sharpen the spectral response. Three such photodetectors can form a pixel of an active matrix array for an image sensor. The different photodetectors in each pixel can be multiplexed electronically. The electronic circuits for activating the different photodetectors can be integrated on the same substrate.
Abstract: A solid state epoxy powder and a solid state fluorescent powder material are mixed in a fixed ratio for application over the surface of an optical device. When the mixture is heated into liquid form and then cooled down, the mixture forms a fluorescent coating which emits colorless light when optical device is excited.
Abstract: A MOSFET operating as a mixer has its drain biased at the knee of the ID vs VDS characteristic. A local oscillator voltage is applied to the gate and a RF signal voltage is applied to the drain through a singled-ended source follower. The nonlinear curvature at the knee produces a beat frequency current. This mixer requires less supply voltage, and results in more conversion gain and less feed-through of the RF input signal than the Gilbert multiplier. Conversely, the RF voltage can be applied to the gate and the local oscillator voltage can be applied to the drain.
Abstract: A resilient friction pad is pushed by a spring against a conveying roller for feeding paper automatically in a printer. The friction pad is placed in a recess at the end of the paper tray. A flat auxiliary spring may be used to share the pressure of a heavy paper load and to prevent the separation of the resilient friction pad and the conveying roller. A support block may be placed underneath the resilient friction pad to prevent sagging of the resilient friction pad. A corrugated arm may be inserted between the push-up spring and the resilient friction pad to provide wider contact between the resilient friction pad and the conveying roller. Two springs are located at the tail end of the resilient friction pad: one to lift to paper tray when the paper stack is light and the other to depress the paper stack so that paper in the upper section of the remaining paper stack does not push the paper being fed so hard that more than one sheet of paper are fed.
Abstract: An anchored resilient ventilated athletic flooring structure having vertical restraints secured to a base in parallel relationship to each other and the restraints have outwardly directed flanges, parallel spaced apart struts positioned under the flanges and transverse to the vertical restraints, a resilient upward biasing means secured under the struts so that the struts are resiliently engaged with the outward directed flanges of two adjacent vertical restraints, parallel spaced apart nailers secured transversely to the top surface of the struts and parallel to the vertical restraints, and a wood flooring secured transversely to the nailers. The spaced apart relationships or the struts and nailers provides a ventilated subfloor. The spaced apart relationships of the vertical restraints, struts and nailers permits the “tuning” of the subfloor by modifying the size and spacing of the subfloor components to effect changes in the measurable properties of the floor.
Abstract: A recuperating four-stroke internal combustion engine obtains improves Carnot efficiency by use of a new and novel cylinder head which captures thermal energy normally thrown away in the exhaust and re-introduces it to the working cycle. This result, long sought by others, has been achieved by incorporating within the head a compact internal recuperative heat exchanger in series with a combustion chamber or pre-chamber. A recuperator-protecting valve segregates the recuperator from hot combustion gases until the gases reach maximum expansion in the cylinder. Recuperators of both common-duct and seperated-duct design are described, the separated duct recuperator permitting higher recuperator temperature and increased efficiency and a reduction in the number of valves necessary to control gas flow. A preferred embodiment employs four valves per cylinder unit, a separated duct recuperator, and an insulating liner that surrounds both the combustion chamber and the recuperator.
Abstract: A light emitting field effect transistor is proposed with a new extended drain region. The extension is doped with erbium or other rare-earth atoms. The erbium provides light-emitting centers in the indirect bandgap silicon substrate to enhance the radiative process. When a drain voltage is applied to create a high enough electric, energetic electrons entering this region interact with Er to emit infrared light.
Abstract: A low supply voltage for operating an operational amplifier operating as a voltage follower is derived from a high voltage source. Two npn transistors, two Zener diodes and a current source are connected in series across the high voltage source. The input voltage (to the operational amplifier) plus a Zener reference voltage is applied to the base of the transistor near the positive terminal of the high voltage source. Then, a low positive supply voltage V+ nearly equal to the input voltage plus the Zener voltage (Vi+Vz) is derived at the emitter. This low positive supply voltage V− is derived by dropping V+ through the two series Zener diodes to obtain a low negative supply voltage equal to (Vi−Vz).
Abstract: A light emitting diode (LED) is connected in series with the power supply input pad of an integrated circuit chip. The LED lights up when the power supply is turned on as an indicator that the IC is operating properly.
Abstract: Two flat contact pads form a portion of the bottom surface of a flat package and constitute the two external connections for the diode. The diode rests on at least one the contact pads. The diode and the contact pads are covered with protective glue. If the diode has one electrode at the bottom surface, the contact pad not in contact with diode is wire bonded to the top electrode. If the diode has both electrodes at the bottom surface, the two electrodes can rest on two separate contact pads. If the diode has both electrodes on the top surface, the electrodes can be wire-bonded to the two separate contact pads. The top surface of the contact pads can be roughened or protruded to increase adhesion between the protective glue and the contact pads. The contact pads can also have tunnels at the bottom surface to increase the gluing interface between the contact pads and the glue.
Abstract: Flat metal strips are used to make connections to a laser diode so that the interconnections are parallel to the surface of the semiconductor device and the structure has a lower profile than a wire-bonded package. The contacts can be made with conducting glue or hard pressed by a lid before sealing with glue.