Abstract: A process deals with gaseous by-products and tarry materials during formation of sol-gel bodies. Gaseous products from a dehydroxylation reactor pass into a gas-fluid contactor. During the early stages of heat treatment, an aqueous acid solution is recirculated through the contactor to trap basic and/or water soluble organic gaseous materials. The resultant solution and non-condensing gases pass into a reservoir. Volatile, undissolved organics exit from the reservoir with non-condensing reactor gases and are treated. Once the organics have burned out of the sol-gel body, recirculation of the aqueous acid solution is ceased, and the gas-fluid contactor is flushed. The water flow is then ceased and dry nitrogen is provided to the contactor. During the next stage of the sol-gel heat treatment, gaseous products from the dehydroxylation reactor pass through the contactor into the caustic scrubber. Once the heat treatment is complete, the contactor is flushed.

Abstract: A method is provided for utilization of previously unusable space within an optical fiber distribution frame for electrical fuses, power, ground, and electrical communications and control for optical fiber management. These components as well as optical fiber installation tools, maintenance tools, and spare parts are housed within spaces defined by upper and lower raceways.

Abstract: The present invention provides methods and apparatus for providing access priority in a MAC protocol of a communications system such as, for example, with respect to UMTS RACH. Particularly, the invention introduces several access priority methodologies including: (i) random chip delay access priority (RCDAP); (ii) random backoff based access priority (RBBAP); (iii) variable logical channel based access priority (VLCAP); (iv) UMTS-specific variable logical channel based access priority (VLCAP′); (v) probability based access priority (PBAP); and (vi) retransmission based access priority (REBAP). Each methodology associates some parameter or parameters to access priority classes in order to influence the likelihood of a remote terminal completing a successful access request to a base station.

Abstract: A wavelength selective polarization beam device uses waveguide grating routers (WGRs) having birefringent grating waveguides. When the device is used as a splitter it separates different wavelength channels of a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) signal as well as the orthogonal polarization components of each wavelength channel. Since the WGR device is reciprocal, it can also be used as a combiner to combine the orthogonal polarization components of each wavelength channel into a WDM signal.

Abstract: A package for hermetically sealing a micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) device in a hybrid circuit comprise a firewall formed on a substrate for the MEMS device and which has a height defining a cavity of the package in which the MEMS device will be sealed. A second substrate spaced from the first substrate hermetically seals the cavity when the second substrate is flip-chip bonded to the first substrate and soldered to the first substrate with a thin film metal material placed on at least a top portion of the firewall. The resulting firewall MEMS device package can be further packaged using conventional CMOS packaging techniques. By hermetically sealing the cavity, the enclosed MEMS device is protected from deleterious conditions found in the environment of conventional CMOS packaging techniques which is often detrimental to MEMS device function.

Abstract: A method of calculating a power threshold for a secondary communication channel capable of operating in DTX mode in forward or reverse links so that the communication channel is prevented from entering a deadlock state. Power threshold information for an associated primary channel and the secondary channel are used to update the established power threshold for the communication channel. The updated power threshold for the communication is thus calculated by combining previously established thresholds for the communication channel and associated primary channel with a current established threshold for the associated primary channel.

Abstract: A wireless telecommunications system uses location or position information to initiate actions on behalf of travelers. As position information of a wireless mobile unit is received, it is compared to stored position information of a remote location, such as a home. As the traveler approaches his home, and gets within a certain distance of home, a signal is then sent to a controller within his home to perform an action or instruct the performance of an action.

Abstract: An electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding system includes one or more electrically conductive gaskets placed between electronic circuit cards in a card rack. The conductive gaskets are affixed to circuit cards to form a conductive shield, at the end of the card rack that is nearest the door of the cabinet in which the card racks are mounted. A gasket is attached to each circuit card within a rack, the gasket “filling” the space between the faceplates of two adjacent circuit cards.

Abstract: A flow control method for available bit rate service in an asynchronous transfer mode network for detecting congestion in a switch and conveying congestion status information using resource management cells to the source which adjusts its flow rate accordingly. During detection of congestion in the switch the explicit rate field of the resource management cell is updated using a dynamic major reduction factor to improve transient queue-length performance.

Abstract: The signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) of wireless systems can be improved, if not optimized, by determining operating parameters used by the base station to substantially simultaneously control the transmit beam patterns that are each formed to establish a communication channel between a base station and a respective one of the wireless terminals as a function of received channel information from at least two of the wireless terminals. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the weight vectors and the power allocation employed by a base station are determined by the base station using information supplied by at least each of the wireless terminals served by the base station, and potentially from wireless terminals served by other base stations, e.g., in neighboring cells to the cell served by the base station, the information from the other cells being supplied via the neighboring cell base stations using inter-base-station communication, e.g., a wire line connection.

Abstract: An article comprising a QC-DFB laser is disclosed. In the QC-DFB laser, an overlying grating structure achieves relatively strong coupling of the guided mode to the grating, and is thus highly effective in inducing single-mode operation even under cw operating conditions. The grating structure includes grooves etched in a plasmon-enhanced confinement layer (PECL) disposed adjacent and in contact with an upper metallic electrode. The grating structure and the PECL are designed such that in the grooves, the laser mode travelling in the waveguide can couple efficiently to the surface-plasmon at the electrode interface. This results in strong modulation of the laser mode, leading to strong modulation of, inter alia, the effective refractive index.

Abstract: An electrooptic probe for measuring the voltage at regions of an ultra fast device under test includes a standard gallium arsenide substrate that includes on a front surface a film of LT GaAs whose surface includes a conductive stripe that includes first and second portions separated by a gap, the first portion for contacting the region under test, and the second portion for connection to a measuring instrument. The probe is irradiated with a pulsed beam of light, advantageously from a mode-locked femtosecond laser focused at the gap in the stripe and of appropriate two photons, for making conducting by two-photon absorption the region of the film underlying the gap. Preferably the beam irradiates the back surface of the probe to pass through its substrate to reach the gap. Alternatively the beam can irradiate the back surface of the device under test to reach the gap.

Abstract: A three stage method and apparatus for performing dynamic time slot assignment on both 2-bit and 8-bit information is disclosed. In the first stage, 2-bit packets undergo a 2-bit time slot assignment prior to being sent to a conventional time slot interchanger. 8-bit information, however, is passed to the time slot interchanger without undergoing the 2-bit time slot assignment. The time slot interchanger performs time slot assignment on the 8-bit information to place the information in the appropriate outgoing DS0 time slots. In the second stage, the time slot interchanger places the 2-bit information into a fixed sequence of 8-bit time slots and passes these time slots to a packer. The prescribed time slots are established such that each time slot represents an assigned 2-bit location within a specific 8-bit time slot. The packer then combines the assigned time slots to create a serial stream of 8-bit time slots where each time slot contains up to four dynamically assigned 2-bit packets.

Abstract: Optical fiber bundles having high optical throughput can be produced with relatively high yield if gaps between fibers are eliminated by application of a particle-containing glass precursor material, exemplarily fumed silica in an aqueous medium. Manufacture of optical fiber bundles that comprise two or more fibers that each comprise a substantially planar surface (with the planar surfaces facing each other) is improved by application of a particle-free glass precursor material, e.g., partially hydrolysed tetramethyl orthosilicate, to the fiber bundle. After drying of the applied glass precursor material the fiber bundle is heated to fuse the fibers together.

Abstract: A properly designed MOF can simultaneously exhibit large anomalous dispersion at visible and near infrared wavelengths and support numerous transverse spatial modes that are essentially decoupled from one another, even in the presence of significant perturbations. In a MOF that includes an inner cladding region comprising at least one thin layer of air holes surrounding a core region, the key is to achieve a relatively large wave vector mismatch between the lowest order modes by appropriate design of the size of the core region and of the effective refractive index difference between the core region and the inner cladding region. In accordance with one aspect of our invention, MOFs are designed to exhibit simultaneously relatively large anomalous dispersion and essentially decoupled transverse spatial modes by making the diameter of the core region less than about 6 &mgr;m and the difference in effective refractive index between the core and cladding regions greater than about 0.1 (10%).

Abstract: A method for consolidating backward resource management (BRM) cells in an available bit rate point-to-multipoint tree including a root, a plurality of leaves and a branch point interconnected between the root and the leaves. Initially, congestion information memory devices are reset. Then for each incoming return BRM cell to the branch point a determination is made whether the branch point has received a return BRM cell from a predetermined number of candidates in a candidate set of candidate-branches. If the branch point has not received a return BRM cell from the predetermined number of candidates in the candidate set then the congestion information from the incoming return BRM cell and the congestion information in the congestion information memory devices are consolidated in the congestion information memory devices.

Abstract: A wireless data network includes a wireless packet switched data network for end users that divides mobility management into local, micro, macro and global connection handover categories and minimizes handoff updates according to the handover category. The network integrates MAC handoff messages with network handoff messages. The network separately directs registration functions to a registration server and direct routing functions to inter-working function units. The network provides an intermediate XTunnel channel between a wireless hub (also called access hub AH) and an inter-working function unit (IWF unit) in a foreign network, and it provides an IXTunnel channel between an inter-working function unit in a foreign network and an inter-working function unit in a home network. The network enhances the layer two tunneling protocol (L2TP) to support a mobile end system, and it performs network layer registration before the start of a PPP communication session.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a lead frame in which the metal lead frame substrate is copper, copper alloy, or iron alloy. The lead frame substrate is coated with a conformable nickel coating that is crack-resistant when the lead frame is bent to an angle of at least about 82 degrees with a bend radius of about 100 &mgr;m to about 300 &mgr;m. Bending the lead frame in this manner causes surface deformations in the lead frame substrate. Cracks do not appear through the thickness of the conformable nickel coating of the present invention when the depth of the deformations that result from this bending do not exceed about 5 &mgr;m.

Abstract: Antenna components of a cylindrical antenna array are adjusted, to dynamically share loads among sectors of a cell or between cells. The antenna components are adjusted based on beam configuration and/or orientation for example, depending upon a monitored load, to thereby vary antenna coverage areas to adjust for varying traffic densities. Antenna components are adjusted to accommodate load variations within a cell, and/or between cells.

Abstract: A read/write system for reading information from a magnetic storage medium using a magnetoresistive head and for providing an output signal representative of the information read includes a differential pair circuit, an input voltage offset compensation circuit, and an input current offset compensation circuit. The differential pair circuit is ac coupled to first and second input signal nodes and includes first and second transistors, first and second load resistors, and a current generator. The input voltage offset compensation circuit is coupled to the differential pair circuit and includes a switch network and a Gm stage. The input current offset compensation circuit is coupled to the differential pair circuit and includes an integrator circuit and first and second biasing resistors.