Abstract: Herein disclosed is a cell stack assembly structure for a fuel cell, comprising a plurality of units each of which is composed of a plurality of cell elements laminated in advance and which are stacked and fastened under a predetermined pressure to construct a cell stack assembly. Each of a plurality of end plates is interposed between any adjacent two of the units. Removable pressure means are provided for fastening under a predetermined pressure any two of the end plates, that are positioned at the two ends of a corresponding one of the units.

Abstract: A process for fabricating a thin-film solar battery is provided having one or more unit cells each having a thin-film semiconductor active region formed over a transparent dielectric substrate and being in contact with a transparent electrode on the substrate side and with a metal electrode on the opposite side. Layers of a transparent conductive film, a semiconductor film, and a metal film are successively formed over the substrate and each other, and the respective films are successively scribed by a laser to form separate, related layers which in turn form the cells. An opaque layer is formed on a portion of the substrate remote from the cells, is scribed by a laser, and serves as a marker so the substrate can be properly aligned during the scribing steps.

Abstract: A semiconductor device for detecting incident gamma-radiation wherein the output from the device is relatively independent of the energy of the incident radiation. The device includes a semiconductor substrate having a depletion layer formed therein by an applied voltage. The depletion layer is shaped such that it includes a plurality of elongated projections within a plane parallel to the surface of the substrate. The minimum distance between the edge of the substrate and the outer extent of the depletion layer is substantially equal to the average range of mobility of secondary electrons created by the gamma rays having the highest energy of the gamma-rays to be detected. The device further includes means for counting the current pulses generated in the depletion layer by secondary electrons created by the incident gamma rays.

Abstract: A fuel cell power supply including a fuel cell and a secondary cell comprises a fuel cell current detector for detecting the fuel cell current generated by the fuel cell; a load current detector for detecting a load current flowing through the load of the fuel cell power supply and for producing a load signal corresponding to the load current; a setting device for producing a set signal corresponding to the strength and time variation pattern of the output signal; and a control device for receiving the output signal and the set signal and for controlling the strength of the fuel cell current.

Abstract: A filler for welding a heat-resistant nickel-base alloy is disclosed. The filler comprises heat-resistant nickel-base alloy and an additive of 0.003 to 0.015 wt % boron based on the total weight of the filler metal. The filler may further comprise an other additive such as zirconium in the total amount of those two elements of 0.015 to 0.15 wt %, and the filler may further comprise the other additives such as lanthanum and cellium in the total amount of those fine elements of 0.018 to 0.15 wt % based on the total weight of the filler. The disclosed filler has improved creep properties at high temperatures and can be obtained without the defects inherent to conventional filler of heat-resistant nickel-base alloys.

Abstract: A serial transmission line monitoring device is disclosed, in which data flowing along a serial transmission line is received and analyzed by setting a protocol or data format of the serial transmission to convert it into a data for display and to display it for a monitoring purpose. The device has a break function for terminating a supply of the display data to an external display unit in response to an occurrence of a specific data. The break function is controlled so that it is possible to display data discriminatively after the occurrence of the specific data to thereby facilitate an analysis of transmission error. The received data or the data for display is supplied to the external display unit and an external memory unit simultaneously to make a display of a data reproduced from the memory unit possible later on.

Abstract: A distance measuring equipment wherein two images of an object are received on photosensor arrays each, two image data rows indicating a luminous intensity distribution in the object are compared with each other, and a distance to the object is measured from a mutual shift rate of both the signal rows which is required for bringing both the signal rows into coincidence at high correlation. A presence of the shift rate whereat the both image data rows indicate a high correlation is detected when it is present plurally, a part of the plural shift rate including a shift rate corresponding to the highest correlation is stored and taken.

Abstract: A surface roughening method, preferably for a substrate of a solar cell, comprising coating the substrate with a photoresist material having light-shielding particles mixed therein, exposing and developing the photoresist coating and then etching the substrate with a suitable etchant.

Abstract: In the particular embodiments of the invention disclosed in the specification, a closely spaced sensor array has two or three adjacent rows of sensor elements arranged to be connected so that if there is a defective sensor element in one row, an output signal can be obtained from the corresponding sensor element in an adjacent row to be used in place of a signal from the defective element. In one embodiment this is accomplished by selective operation of a switch and, in other embodiments, the signal output lead from the defective element is severed from that element and connected to the corresponding element in the adjacent row.

Abstract: A fuel cell system for replacement of fuel gas includes a fuel cell having a fuel chamber, a fuel supply subsystem communicating with the fuel chamber of the fuel cell and a contact-type burner installed in the fuel supply subsystem for burning, with air, fuel derived from the fuel supply subsystem. At the time of start of operation of the fuel cell, in the operating state of the burner, a feed quantity of the fuel gas to be introduced into the burner is gradually increased while a feed quantity of the air to be introduced into the burner is decreased from 100% to 0% so that the air in the fuel chamber is replaced with the fuel gas. At the time of stop of operation of the fuel cell, in the operating state of the burner, the feed quantity of the fuel gas to be introduced into the burner is gradually decreased while the feed quantity of the air to be introduced into the burner is increased from 0% to 100% so that the fuel gas in the fuel chamber is replaced with the air.

Abstract: A fuel cell system is disclosed including a fuel cell having a fuel supply subsystem including a fuel chamber and an air or oxygen supply subsystem including an air or oxygen chamber, a burner, in which fuel derived from the fuel subsystem of the fuel cell is burned with air or oxygen, and a storage tank, in which combustion gas produced in the burner is stored as replacement gas so that the replacement gas is fed from the storage tank into the fuel subsystem of the fuel cell at the time of start and stop of operation of the fuel cell.

Abstract: A range finder wherein the quantization of analog outputs from light receptor elements for converting an optical image into an electrical signal is accomplished by comparing the outputs from at least two of the light receptor elements in each group, by dividing the outputs into the following three cases: one output is greater than the other; both are equal; and one is smaller than the other.

Abstract: An optical gas densitometer is provided comprising a conical filter portion having a front and rear end disposed to the inside of a cell portion and formed into a conical shape, which has a reflection mirror disposed to the inside of the front end thereof, windows disposed at the rear end thereof and in which the angle between an incident optical beam and an exiting optical beam is predetermined. Plate means at the front end of the filter and formed in a space between the inside of the cell portion and the outside of the conical filter portion, divides the space into a gas feed channel below the plate means and a gas exhaust channel above the plate means. An opening channel is disposed between the gas feed channel and the gas exhaust channel towards the rear end of the filter. A partition plate connected to the plate means at the front end of the filter, divides a gas sampling tube into first and second channels which correspond to the feed channel and exhausting channel, respectively.

Abstract: A floating apparatus for use in an attractive floater railway includes a magnetic rail mounted on the underside of a track. The magnetic rail comprises sheets of ferromagnetic material laminated together and is formed to have a cross section in the shape of a trapezoid or a quadrant of a circle with faces of the rail including a horizontal surface and a vertical surface. A guiding electromagnet is disposed opposite to the vertical surface and a supporting electromagnet is disposed opposite to the horizontal surface. The electromagnets are mounted on a truck and are constructed such that the respective fluxes thereof flow in opposite directions in the magnetic rail. The magnetic rail may include a magnetic propulsion rail opposite to a linear inductor machine to provide both vertical support and horizontal propulsion to the truck.

Abstract: A reverse bias current supply system for a switching device having a circuit including a constant voltage device connected in parallel with an electrical circuit which supplies a base reverse bias current to the switching semiconductor device so that a voltage across the electrical circuit is clamped to control the base reverse bias current at a constant level regardless of variations in the power supply or component characteristics.

Abstract: In the particular embodiments of the invention disclosed herein, an image data comparison circuit receives digital image signal trains from two light sensor arrays of a rangefinder and compares the signals in the signal trains while they are being shifted with respect to each other. In one embodiment a set of coincidence detectors compares each signal in one signal train with all of the signals in one segment of the other image train and the number of coincidence detections by each detector is accumulated as the signal trains are cycled through corresponding shift registers. Another embodiment includes coincidence detectors for comparing all of the signals in corresponding segments of the two signal trains simultaneously.

Abstract: A displacement converting device converts mechanical movement of a sensor or actuator mechanisms to a corresponding electrical signal by varying the electrostatic capacitance of one or a combination of capacitors in accordance with the mechanical movement. Current generating circuits produce currents having magnitudes corresponding to the capacitance values. An operational amplifier generates an output signal having a value corresponding to the mechanical movement by comparing the magnitudes of the generated currents.

Abstract: An image sensor for use in a solid-state facsimile transmitter includes a plurality of photosensors disposed in an array, each photosensor composed of a plurality of series-connected photodiodes; a voltage source; a plurality of switches for selectively applying a reverse bias from the voltage source to the photosensor array, each photosensor in the array being successively reverse biased by a corresponding one of the switches; and an output resistor for detecting current flowing through the selected reverse biased photosensor. The photosensors and switches may each comprise a plurality of series-connected photodiodes provided on a common substrate.

Abstract: In the particular embodiment of the invention described in the specification, the identity of an unknown character is determined by comparing matrices representing the unknown character with matrices representing known characters and determining the deviation beween matrices for the unknown and each known character. To obtain the matrices to be compared, a transformation chain is expressed in terms of horizontal, vertical and diagonal vectors, permitting all types of transformation chains to be used. Two-dimensional memory units having superposed shift registers are used in comparing matrices to determine minimum deviation.

Abstract: A method for adding impurities to a semiconductor base material comprises the steps of placing the base material in a vacuum chamber having an atmosphere containing the impurities as dopants, heating the base material to a temperature not exceeding 400.degree. C., and causing a glow discharge in the vacuum chamber. The impurities are introduced as a gas containing, for example, diboron, phosphine, antimony, arsenic, gallium, or as an organic metal gas such as trimethyl gallium, trimethyl indium, or trimethyl aluminum. To cause the dopant atoms to become substitutional by assuming lattice positions, the base material may be subjected to a second glow discharge in an inert gas atmosphere.