Abstract: A method for producing a fuel cell core including: providing two identical subassemblies each including a substrate and a current collector removably arranged thereon, depositing an ionic liquid or pasty polymerizable membrane on at least one of the subassemblies in such a way that the collector thereof is completely covered, applying the subassemblies one against the other so as to obtain an assembly having a solidified membrane with the two collectors incorporated, face to face, in this membrane, and detaching the two substrates from the collectors.

Abstract: A device for reading information in a set of electronic components connected to a communication bus in order to send that information over the communication bus includes means for reading values held in at least some of the electronic components holding a value to be sent and an arbiter circuit for successively sending the read values over the communication bus. The arbiter circuit includes means for circulating between the electronic components holding a value to be sent a single token authorizing sending of the read values.

Abstract: A mode hop-free tunable laser including a gain medium, a microfabricated blazed grating, defining an external cavity of a given length, the blazed grating lying in a general plane and including a plurality of elongate beams carrying mutually parallel respective reflection surfaces spaced apart from one another with a predefined pitch, and actuating elements designed so as to allow displacements of the assembly with respect to a grating support within a plane substantially parallel to the grating general plane, and including actuation elements designed so as to apply a stretching and a displacement of the assembly in a direction transverse to said reflection surfaces, the blazed grating being arranged relative to an incident light beam provided by the gain medium so that the incident light beam impinges on the reflection surfaces with a substantially normal incident angle.

Abstract: The present invention relates to the realization of particular supramolecular assemblies of dyes, in particular cyanines, called J aggregates. The invention concerns an assembly made up of a support including a mesoporous layer whereof the pores have an average BET diameter greater than 1.5 nm, macromolecules with dendritic architecture functionalizing said layer, at least in its pores, a layer of molecules from the family of cyanines interacting with the macromolecules with dendritic architecture and organized into J aggregates.

Abstract: A Zero-order diffractive filter comprising a first layer (1) with a periodic diffractive microstructure, forming a waveguide, and at least one adjacent second layer (2, 4, 5), wherein said first layer (1) has a refractive index that is higher than the refractive index of said second layer (2, 4, 5) by at least 0.2. At least one of said second layers (2, 4, 5) is a porous layer comprising nanopores. The period ? of the diffractive microstructure is between 100 nm and 3000 nm.

Abstract: The present invention discloses, inter alia, an authentication item manufactured on product units for encoding the product units as being authentic. The authentication item is an intensity-modulating surface comprising a plurality of adjacent protrusions such that the intensity-modulating surface has alternating height. Each of the protrusions has at least two slopes of respective different orientation. When being in an authenticating position with respect to incident electromagnetic radiation employed for authentication, the authentication item modulates the intensity of the electromagnetic radiation in a manner that generates an intensity profile which is characteristic of the authentication item. In the authentication position, the propagation direction of the incident electromagnetic radiation is at least approximately parallel to one of the at least two slopes of the plurality of protrusions.

Abstract: The present invention discloses a smart label to be affixed on or integrated in an object and able to provide an electrical signal indicative of the applied pressure or force and/or the position of the applied pressure or force at a touch point on the object to which the label is affixed. The smart label comprises a layer structure and a detector system, the layer structure comprising of at least a stack of a first, a second and a third layer. The first and third layers comprise a flexible, electrically conductive or semiconductive material and at least two electrodes for connecting the layers to the detector system. The second layer comprises a flexible, deformable and compressible material. The second layer is electrically nonconductive or electrically conductive but less conductive than the first and third layers, wherein the second layer separates the first and third layers.

Abstract: A photo sensor exhibiting low noise, low smear, low dark current and high dynamic range consists of a pinned (or buried) photodiode (PPD) with associated transfer gate (TG), a reset circuit (3) and a device (SL) with sub-linear voltage-to-current characteristic. The exposure cycle is started by reverse biasing the buried photodiode to its pinning potential and by setting the transfer gate (TG) to a non-zero skimming potential. Photo-generated charge carriers start to fill the buried photodiode; if illumination intensity is high, excessive photocharges are flowing over the transfer gate (TG) to the sensing node. Because of the sub-linear device (SL) connected to the sensing node, the voltage at the sensing node is a sub-linear function of the illumination intensity, and hence the dynamic range of the pixel is increased.

Abstract: The present invention discloses a pressure measurement device comprising: a substrate that includes at least one pressure sensing module and at least one fluid-conductive channel, wherein each channel has a first aperture and a second aperture. The substrate is flexible such that the pressure measurement device is conformably adjustable onto an object's surface. The first aperture is located on the substrate such that when the substrate is suitably adjusted onto the object's surface, the first aperture is open to the exterior of the object's surface. The pressure sensors module is operatively connected to at least one of the second apertures, such that the at least one pressure sensing module is generally being subjected to the pressure being present at the first aperture.

Abstract: A blazed grating is disclosed as well as mode hop-free tunable lasers and a process for fabricating gratings of this type. The grating lies in a general plane and includes a plurality of elongate beams carrying mutually parallel respective reflection surfaces spaced apart from one another with a predefined pitch, each of these reflection surfaces having a normal direction inclined at a grating angle ? to the normal direction of the general plane. The grating includes a plurality of resilient suspension arms connected to the beams and intended to be fastened to a grating support. A first pair of comb electrodes is provided for applying a mechanical force to this assembly, being placed on a first side of the grating, along an axis transverse to the beams, and designed so as to allow the pitch of the grating to be modified in response to the application of the mechanical force.

Abstract: The diffractive optical device (1) can be used as a security device in the fields of authentication, identification and security. It comprises a zero-order diffractive color filter (3). The diffractive color filter may consist of a microstructured high-index layer (32) embedded between two low-index layers (31, 33). A mirror layer (4) for reflecting towards the diffractive color filter (3) at least part of light transmitted through the diffractive color filter (3) are provided beneath the diffractive color filter. Thanks to the mirror layer (4), the device (1) has a much higher reflected intensity and much more complex spectra than prior-art diffractive color filters.

Abstract: A security device comprises first zero order diffractive microstructure (1) on a substrate, a second zero order diffractive microstructure (2), and an intermediate light transmissive layer (4) separating the two diffractive microstructures. The spacing (sn,n+1) between the first (1) and second (2) diffractive microstructures is small enough so that optical interferences are produced between the diffractive microstructures. A further light transmissive layer (3) covers the second diffractive microstructure (2).

Abstract: A security device for the identification or authentication of valuable goods is described, including a thin material layer (22, 26) presenting a stochastic pattern including micro/submicrostructures, where the latter are arranged in blobs (2) each of which presents a complexity factor Cx = L 2 4 ? ? · A , where L is the perimeter of the blob and A its area, and wherein blobs having a Cx value greater than or equal to 2 cover at least 5%, preferably at least 15%, of the device surface. According to a preferred embodiment, the material layer may include a film including at least a first and a second polymers arranged respectively within a first and a second phases defining the micro/submicrostructures. Preferred processes of fabrication are also disclosed, as well as a method for securing a valuable good based on such a security device.

Abstract: The present invention discloses an adhesion rotary disc pump comprising a housing embedding therein at least one adhesion-propelling disc mounted on a rotatable shaft that is drivable by a drive, wherein fluids engaging with said at least one adhesion-propelling disc are transportable from at least one inlet to at least one outlet. In embodiments, the pump employs a scraping unit operative to scrape off fluid adherent on both sides of each of the at least one rotatable adhesion-propelling disc and that the scraped-off fluid is being channeled directly or indirectly to the at least one outlet.

Abstract: A zero order diffractive filter for polarised or unpolarised polychromatic light, comprises a grating line (10) microstructure (1) formed by a surrounding medium (12) with low index of refraction nlow and a waveguiding layer (11) with high index of refraction nhigh, the grating lines (10) having a period length ? that is smaller than the wavelength of light for which the filter is designed. A plurality of single nanostructures (2) with dimensions in the nanometre range is superposed on a first interface (13) between the surrounding medium (12) and the waveguiding layer (11).

Abstract: The invention relates to the sampling of temporally changing amounts of charge (102) by receiving varying amounts of charge (102) varying as a function of time, transforming the varying amounts of charge received into a linear distribution pattern, sampling the linear distribution pattern at a plurality of discretely spaced sampling locations (104), and collecting the amounts of charge (102) located between two adjacent scanning locations, and further detecting the collected amounts of charges (102).

Abstract: The present invention discloses an optical device able to luminesce, whereby the optical device comprises, inter alia, a luminescent source that is directly or indirectly mechanically coupled to a low-order mode waveguide, such that light emitting from the luminescent source is optically coupled into the low-order mode waveguide. In embodiments of the invention, the distance D between point sources of the luminescent source and the waveguide is about equal to or smaller than the decay length of the exponential tails of the modes supported by the waveguide, thereby obtaining an optical coupling efficiency of at least 3%. Additional and alternative embodiments are claimed and disclosed.

Abstract: The invention relates to mechanical watch oscillators comprising an assembly consisting of a spiral and a temperature compensated balance. The spiral is embodied in a quartz substrate whose section is selected in such a way that the drifts of the spiral and of the balance associated therewith are thermally compensated. The substrate section can be embodied in the form of a section of single or double rotation.

Abstract: The present invention discloses a sample sorter system adapted to receive and sort samples according to predetermined criteria. The sample sorter system comprises a receptacle that is adapted to receive and retain fluid and samples. The receptacle is operatively coupled with a drive and with a power source such that actuation of the drive causes the rotation of at least one circular component, which in turn causes the development of a flow regime in the receptacle such that the samples suspended in the fluid are conveyable along a closed path to at least one sample handling site that are positioned along said closed path.

Abstract: The present invention refers, inter alia, to pixel circuits. The pixel circuit according to embodiments of the invention may include a photo-sensitive device having charge storage capability connected to a sense node. The pixel circuit may further include an inverting amplifier which is able to amplify a voltage from the sense node to a voltage on an output node of the amplifier, when being operated in open-loop configuration; and a reset switch being able to connect the input and output nodes of the inverting amplifier and thus to reset the inverting amplifier to an operating point providing high open loop gain by temporarily establishing negative feedback. Moreover, the pixel circuit may include a low-pass filter at the output node of the inverting amplifier for limiting the signal frequencies passing to the readout node to those frequencies that contain useful signal information. Additional and alternative embodiments are specified and claimed.