Abstract: The invention relates to a method and device for improving the surface of a substrate. Plasma is produced by a luminous discharge, close to the substrate to be treated, using a hollow cathode and an anode assigned thereto. A reactive gas located in the area of the luminous discharge is activated, causing a change to occur on the surface of substrate to provide the desired improvement. The hollow cathode is brought to a self-cleansing temperature and maintained at said temperature, whereby the parasitic deposits caused by the reactive gas are removed and/or converted. The self-cleansing temperature is stabilized by taking into account the following factors: the heating of the hollow cathode by the luminous discharge, thermal conduction carried out by the reactive gas and radiation in the direction of a cooled anode arranged at a small distance from the hollow cathode.

Abstract: The object of the invention is to propose an arrangement, with which, when shutting-off or throttling the transport of a liquid with a fitting, the occurrence of undesirable pressures in the pipeline is prevented reliably without supplying air or other gases into the pipeline, as well as without using an air chamber or an auxiliary fitting or additional controllers and without specifying a fixed shutting off and throttling rate. The implementation of the invention shall prevent impermissible pressures upstream as well as downstream of the shutting-off fitting. The invention provides that a braking system is connected with the pipeline and is driven by liquid pressure in the pipeline, acting on the drive shaft, the drive spindle or the drive rods of the shutting-off or throttling fitting.

Abstract: The invention relates to a process for producing functional coatings with organofunctional silanes, a metal compound and difficultly volatile oxides, in which

Abstract: The invention relates to a device, in particular for a laser-induced vacuum are discharge evaporator for depositing of multiple layers with a high level of purity and high deposition rates on large-area components. According to the invention, the material source for the coating material is in a source chamber which can be evacuated and can be separated in a vacuum-tight manner from the actual coating chamber in which the substrate to be coated is located. The evaporator can, in particular, be used for deposition of amorphous carbon layers which are hydrogen-free and superhard and/or which contain hydrogen, in conjunction with high-purity metal layers or for the reactive plasma-enhanced deposition of, for example, oxidic, carbide, nitride hard material layers of ceramic layers or a combination thereof. The corresponding plasma sources can be flange-mounted on any suitable coating chambers and, consequently, also combined with conventional coating processes, for example magnetron sputtering.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and a device for quantitative and qualitative on-line differentiation of biotic and abiotic particles. The methods and devices are used to ensure quality and to monitor production as well as in analysis procedures for particular contamination's of gaseous media. The methods and devices are chiefly used in pharmacology, food technology, medicine, biotechnology and health care and in controlling maximum admissible concentration values. According to the inventive method, the gas sample to be measured is briefly heated at very high temperatures in a heating chamber (3). Dimensional distribution of particle contamination is determined before and after heating by means of diffuse light sensors (1, 2). Dimensional changes of biotic panicles caused by heating make it possible to determine their proportion in total particle load of the gas sample and their composition.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an electromechanical converter, a method of manufacturing same, as well as to a composite system including the electromechanical converter. The inventive electromechanical converter consists of at least one elongate fiber (1) made of a piezoelectric material. At least two electrodes (2) are provided at mutually spaced locations on the fiber (1) for subjecting the fiber to an electrical field. The electrodes (2) are in direct contact with the fiber (1) and enclose the fiber (1) partly or completely. The direct contact between the electrode and the fiber permits the optimum introduction of the electrical field into the fiber such that lower electrical potentials on the electrodes are sufficient for polarising the fiber. Another advantage resides in the aspect that the electrode is in direct contact with the fiber not only at one point but over part of the periphery of the fiber. This results in a further enhancement of the introduction of the electrical field.

Abstract: A propellant charge arrangement for barrel-weapons or ballistic drives comprises a conventional core charge having an ignition system and a consolidated propellant surrounding the core charge and having its own high electrical energy ignition system which can be controlled in a time-delayed manner after triggering the core charge ignition system. The structure and arrangement of the consolidated propellant and its ignition system are chosen such that, during combustion of the core charge, the consolidated propellant disintegrates into fragments of essentially uniform geometry in response to triggering of its associated ignition system, wherein the fragments are accelerated into the gas volume generated during combustion of the core charge.

Abstract: An arrangement is disclosed for geometrically shaping a radiation field, in particular the radiation field of a diode laser array which propagates in the z direction and has a radiation cross section which is larger, in a direction defined as the y direction, which is perpendicular to the first, and has a lower radiation quality in said direction. X, y and z form a Cartesian coordinate system. The radiation is grouped into radiation fractions in the x direction and the radiation fractions are reoriented as regards their radiation cross sections. The arrangement has at least two reflective elements (6) and is characterized in that each reflective element has a pair of reflection surfaces (7,8) at approximately or exactly 90° to each other. This opening angle (9) is oriented against the direction of propagation. The line (10) at which the reflection surfaces intersect is oriented at approximately below 45° to the x direction.

Abstract: The invention relates to a shower system with a showerhead (18) which is connected to a mixer faucet (12) for warm and cold water via a water delivery channel (16) and can be operated with various, according to selection, streams. According to the invention, a remote control unit is provided for adjusting the stream of the showerhead in order to enable an easier and more reliable change of the stream. To this end, an actuating element is located at a distance from the showerhead.

Abstract: The method for the manufacture of multilayer connecting substrates with multiple functions comprises the design of the connecting substrate taking place in functionally separated manner, in that signal conducting substrate parts (19), power supplying substrate parts (2), mechanical substrate parts (7), as well as the arrangement of components (4) or component-carrying substrate parts is separately planned and optimized as independent functions or modules and finally associated with spatially separated functional areas (inner/outer) of the overall circuit, the design taking place by the connection of the modules to an overall circuit embodying the connecting substrate. The resulting multilayer circuit with conductor network (19, 2), components (4) and mechanical stiffening elements (7) has the following structure.

Abstract: A circuit for predistorting a signal to be transmitted via a non-linear channel comprises an envelope detector for detecting an envelope of the signal. A quantization for forming quantized envelope values on the basis of the detected envelope is connected to the envelope detector as well as to a table for supplying complex predistortion coefficients which depend on the quantized envelope values and on a previously detected transmission function of the non-linear channel. An evaluation circuit separated from the non-linear channel and used for the complex evaluation of the signal to be transmitted via the non-linear channel with the complex predistortion coefficients permits the distortion introduced by the non-linear channel to be substantially compensated according to amount and phase.

Abstract: An apparatus for transmitting information comprises a bitstream source for providing a bitstream representing the information, a redundancy adding encoder for generating an encoded bitstream, which is arranged to output, for a first number of input bits, a second number of output bits, the second number of output bits having at least twice as many output bits as the first number of input bits, wherein the second number of output bits includes two portions of output bits, each portion of output bits individually allowing the retrieval of information represented by the first number of input bits, and the first portion of output bits being coded based on the bitstream in a different way with respect to the second portion of output bits.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for producing a zig-zag folded filter element from a web of material (18), which is supplied through a feeding device to a stamping unit (10). To define the folding line, the stamping unit is fitted with an anvil roll (21) and a stamping die (24), the stamping unit being ultrasound activated and thereby improving the stamping operation.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of fabricating a metallized circuit structure for preventing product piracy and product manipulation, a semiconductor component fabricated by the method as well as the use of the semiconductor component in a chip card. The method may be practiced with CMOS-compatible standard Semiconductor technologies and complicates the use of so-called reverse engineering for appropriating foreign technology knowhow or for reading and/or manipulating data stored in the component. It is also possible by the method in accordance with the invention to fabricate a semiconductor component protected from ambient influences. In the method in accordance with the invention the component layer in the substrate (1) is processed up to a metallization complex. Thereafter, the front surface of the component substrate (1) thus obtained is connected to the front surface of a handling substrate (6) and the component substrate (1) is thinned from the rear side.

Abstract: In a chip bonding method, first bonding bumps are applied to bonding electrodes of the chip, a first flexible circuit carrier is arranged on the chip, the flexible circuit carrier having cavities which are aligned with the bonding bumps, and second bonding bumps are applied to the first bonding bumps in such a way that bonding areas on the first flexible circuit carrier are in contact with the first and/or second bonding bumps.

Abstract: The invention relates to a process and a device for metallization of semiconductor structures, with which areas of the surface can be connected to be electrically conductive using strip conductors in one or a plurality of planes, and contacts between the strip conductors of different planes. The process for producing metallic coatings on semiconductor structures by depositing from a vapor phase under vacuum, in trenches produced for the strip conductors and holes for strip conductor connection in the substrate material such as SiO2 or other inorganic and organic materials is characterized in that a known per se pulsed vacuum-arc evaporator is used, a barrier layer being deposited on the surface of the trenches and holes of the substrates using the plasma of the evaporator and/or the trenches and holes being filled with low-impedance strip conductor material from a further plasma of said type of evaporator.

Abstract: In a method for assessing the quality of an audio test signal derived from an audio reference signal by coding and decoding, the audio test signal is compared with the audio reference signal, as it were, behind the cochlea of the human ear. All masking effects as well as the transmission function of the ear are equally applied to the audio reference signal and the audio test signal. To this end, the audio test signal is broken down according to its spectral composition by means of a first bank of filters consisting of filters overlapping in frequency and defining spectral regions, said filters having differing filtering functions each determined on the basis of the excitation curve of the human ear with respect to the respective filter center frequency. The audio reference signal is also broken down according to its spectral composition into partial audio reference signals by means of a second bank of filters coinciding with the first bank of filters.

Abstract: A micromechanically produced flow-restriction device has a first passage opening formed in a first main surface of a substrate. A channel is formed in a second main surface of the substrate and one end thereof is in fluid communication with the first passage opening. A second passage opening is in fluid communication with a second end of the channel. The first passage opening, the channel and the second passage opening define a flow path. A membrane is formed in the substrate and is in fluid communication with the first passage opening. A membrane electrode is formed at least on the membrane.

Abstract: A hexapodal machining center comprising a fixed frame (1) and a support (2) which are interconnected via six struts (3) of an adjustable length. The connecting points (T1, T2, T3) of three struts on the support form a first working plane, whereas a further working plane is formed by the connecting points (T4, T5, T6) of the three further struts on the support. The frame connection points (G1, G2, G3, G4, G5, G6) of the struts are also arranged in two separate working planes. The connecting points of the two working planes of the support are superimposed such that the connecting lines of the superimposed pairs of connecting points (T1, T4; T2, T5; T3, T6) extend in parallel with each other. This allows a high degree of movability of the support in all of the six degrees of freedom. In particular, the movability in the three rotational degrees of freedom and the force receiving capacity of the support are optimized.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an optical detector device, in particular for analyzing substances, mixtures of substances or chemical reactions and for determining refractive indices, the device comprising a light source, a measurement path and a reference path and an optoelectronic detection means, with an optical divider being provided downstream of the light source for forming two radiation sources for divergently radiated light beams, of which one is assigned to the measurement path and one to the reference path, and the phase velocity of the light being influenced at least in the measurement path, and the divergent light beams being superimposed in the area of the optoelectronic detection means to form a characteristic intensity distribution.