Abstract: A heat responsive electrical switch comprises a small, open ended, generally cylindrical housing in which are mounted two spaced plate members extending in parallel directions from a bottom wall into a switch cavity. The first plate member mounts at its distal free end a relatively inflexible movable contact arm which is adapted to move into and out of engagement with a stationary contact mounted on the second plate member. A relatively low spring rate spring is connected between the movable contact arm toward the stationary contact with a selected contact force created by displacing a portion of the spring with a reaction force. The open end of the housing is formed with a plurality of raised plateaus. A thermally conductive cup is received over the open end interfitting with the plateaus. A thermally responsive snap-acting disc and a flexible motion transfer sheet of resinous material can be captured by the cup at the open end of the housing.

Abstract: A circuit board edge member includes an elongated body of electrically insulative material having front, back and inner wall members and a plurality of pairs of contact elements seated with one of each pair between the front and inner walls and the other of each pair between the back and inner walls. A tongue is integrally attached to the inner wall and extends from the body in line with a circuit board receivable at a circuit board seat formed in the body. The contact elements are formed with a gold inlay solid phase bonded to a portion of the contact element which is received on opposite faces of the tongue. The tongue has a reverse taper and may be slotted to provide polarization. Mounting ears may be provided on opposite ends of the base to facilitate attachment of the edge member to a circuit board using conventional screw fasteners or snap in devices.

Abstract: An educational learning aid which obtains its procedural data via bar code or other indicia imprinted on the edge of detachable work book sheets. The aid holds the detachable sheet over a touch sensitive array of switches so that touching or marking of the sheet is sensed by the underlying switches in the aid. The correct content of the answers is communicated to the aid by a bar code or machine readable section either on a work sheet or on a second sheet. In this fashion the operator responds to printed material on the sheet and is verbally reinforced by the learning aid for correct answers. Preferably a running tally of the operator's correct responses is kept and he is informed at the end of the exercise of his score. This score is optionally printed upon the paper upon completion of the exercise.

Abstract: Polycrystalline semiconductor material is treated to form a skin of a thermally stable substance and melted with the molten material retained by the film. Upon cooling, the material solidifies as single crystal and the skin is removed.

Abstract: Coupler for joining two optical fibers to a third fiber, while preserving good optical isolation between the first two fibers. The coupler is preferably formed of an approximately index-matching plastic, and the fiber ends are cemented in place. The two fibers which are to be isolted are located parallel and adjacent to each other, and their ends are glued into an elongated hole on one side of the coupler. Opposite to this hole is a second hole into which the union fiber is seated. Epoxy glue is used to connect the fibers in place. Plastic fibers are preferably used.

Abstract: A formant tracker for receiving an analog speech signal and generating indicia representative of the formant. A pitch tracker determines the fundamental frequency of the analog speech input. The fundamental frequency is used to control a sinusoidal oscillator in the generation of a sinusoidal signal which when combined with the analog speech input generates a convolution over the chosen formant frequency. The process is repeated for each integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, thereby changing the sinusoidal oscillator. The optimal integer multiple is chosen which generates the formant identification. The optimal integer is also used to generate an appropriate bandwidth. Three formant frequency ranges are used to define human speech. The optimal integers for the other two formant identifications and the appropriate bandwidths are similarly determined. The three optimal integer values are combined with the fundamental frequency to get the three formant values and their associated bandwidths.

Abstract: A motion translator is used in an impact printer of the type having a printhead and platen that move relative to each other, for driving the print ribbon in a single, fixed direction. A drive cable has each end connected to opposite sides of the frame of the printer and is wrapped 360.degree. around a flange of the outer housing of the translator. The translator is rotatably mounted on the printhead carriage so that as the carriage moves relative to the platen, the housing is rotated by the drive cable. An upper clutch engages a driven, output shaft when the housing is rotated in one direction and does not engage the shaft when the housing is rotated in the opposite direction. A hubbed drive gear is positioned to rotate opposite the rotation of the housing. A lower clutch turns the driven, output shaft in the fixed direction when the housing rotates in the opposite direction by engaging the hub of the drive gear. When the housing is rotated in the one direction, the lower clutch does not engage.

Abstract: An electronic device, such as an integrated circuit formed on a single semiconductor chip, is mounted on a relatively flat insulative substrate, such as a chip carrier or printed circuit board, and electrically connected to electrical conductors on the substrate by means of a bonding material disposed between the device and substrate. The device is placed on the substrate with its electrically active surface in facing relationship with the substrate and with its electrical contact pads in registration with selected ones of the substrate conductors. The bonding material is substantially electrically conductive only along one axis which is orthogonal to the major planes of the device and substrate to provide an electrically conductive path between the contact pads and electrical conductors. The bonding material is allowed to accumulate along the perimeter of the electronic device to form a protective seal between the electronic device and the substrate.

Abstract: An electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM) of the floating gate type is constructed having an improved coupling ratio made by allowing the edges of the floating gates to be self aligned with the edges of the control gates. The ratio of the capacitance between the floating gate and control gate is increased by extending the floating gate out over the source and drain.

Abstract: A single-chip microprocessor device of the MOS/LSI type contains an ALU, several internal busses, a number of address/data registers, and an instruction register with associated control decode or microcontrol generator circuitry. The device communicates with external memory and peripherals by a bidirectional multiplexed address/data bus and a number of control lines. The ALU circuit is constructed to modify the carry-generate term so that the twos-complement function (and others) can be generated for either of the ALU inputs. By then connecting the most significant bit of the input to the arithmetic/logic control of the ALU, the absolute value function is generated. This results in faster signed multiply and divide instructions with less circuitry.

Abstract: An electronic handheld learning aid is disclosed. The learning aid is utilized to teach spelling and alphabetic skills. The learning aid randomly selects a word from memory storage and displays an appropriate number of blank spaces to the operator. The operator attempts to discern the word by entering proposed letters. The operator may also input a word for another operator to attempt to discern. Additional alphabetic format games and learning operations provide training and experience in literary skills. Scoring function and displayed reward phrases provide positive reinforcement of learned skills.

Abstract: An oven controller having a microprocessor for a microwave oven has a first dial for entering time cook data in one embodiment and time or temperature cook data in other embodiments and a second dial for entering duty cycle power data. Analog signals are derived from the dials which are converted into digital signals for entering into the processor using either discrete components, separate integrated circuits or the microprocessor itself. A servo mechanism is shown in one embodiment to rotate the dials in a prescribed manner to display cook data in either time remaining or actual temperature. In other embodiments a digital display is used to provide this information.

Abstract: A stepper motor for use in peripheral devices such as electronic printing terminals has its coils selected for activation by selection circuitry, with its power provided by a switch mode current regulator. The switch mode regulator utilizes the selected motor winding as the storage element of the regulator and the voltage ramp derived from the current flow through the motor coil itself for comparison with a reference voltage. The output of the comparator circuit controls the state of a latch which has a fixed frequency clock input. The frequency of the latch output is fixed, but the on time and off time of the latch varies in accordance with the output of the comparator. A comparator and latch circuit therefore form a pulse width modulator which then regulates the on and off time of the switching regulator power transistor.

Abstract: CMOS source/drain regions of both conductivity types are formed using only a single masking step. One dopant is applied to both types of source/drain regions, and a second dopant is applied at a much higher dose and energy to only one type of source/drain region. Preferably, boron and arsenic are used as the dopants in silicon, since the cooperative diffusion effect causes the boron in the counterdoped source/drain regions to be entirely contained within the arsenic diffusion.To avoid the erratic etching characteristics of heavily-doped polysilicon under chloro-etch, the patterned photoresist used to pattern the gates and gate-level interconnects is left in place during the P+ source/drain implant. Thus, moderately doped N-type polysilicon may be used, since it is not exposed to compensation by the P+ implant. Since no P+ source/drain mask is required, no double-level photoresist structure is created, and there is consequently no obstacle to reworks.

Abstract: A self regulating heater for use in an early fuel evaporation (EFE) system for an automotive engine includes a thermally conductive thick metal radiator body having a heat receiving side an opposite side provided with a plurality of heat-disturbing fins for transferring heat to a fuel heating zone. A plurality of self-regulating ceramic electrical resistance having a positive temperature coefficient of resistivity (PTC) each have a first side bonded by an electrically and thermally conductive adhesive to a first side of a thin thermally and electrically conductive metal plate. The plate has a limited portion thereof secured, for example, by a screw, in electrically conductive relation to the radiator body with the opposite side of the thin plate in closely spaced, facing, heat-transfer relation to the heat receiving side of the radiator body.

Abstract: A speech synthesis system with a linear predictive filter. The linear predictive filter utilizes coded reflection coefficients to produce digital signals representative of human speech. A variable interpolation circuit within the linear predictive filter allows a variable number of interpolation steps to be calculated between successive values of reflection coefficients. Additionally, a user programmable option allows the user to select a linear, nonlinear, or a combination form of interpolation based on stored scale data. The synthesizer output circuit also functions as a digital-to-analog converter.

Abstract: A memory system includes a multiple memory pointer in which a pointer selection signal selects one of a plurality of memory pointers to generate an address signal for application to the memory for controlling the location of memory operations. In the preferred embodiment the memory is arranged in an X by Y matrix having X times Y individually addressable memory locations. A first pointer circuit has a plurality of address pointers, one of which is selected for generation of an X coordinate address. A second pointer circuit includes a single address pointer for generation of the Y coordinate address. The second pointer circuit may be a multiple pointer in an alternative embodiment. By provision of a number of individually addressable memories responsive to the same memory pointer system, separate application of address signals from differing address pointers to differing memories permits multiple memory operations in a single instruction cycle.

Abstract: An address decode scheme decodes address lines using a minimum number of electrical conductors and minimum area on the chip. Instead of decoding the true and the complementary signals of each address input using a PLA or static gate, the present decode scheme uses two sets of programmable transistors for respectively detecting zeros and ones on the address lines and for generating selected high and low decode signals in conjunction with precharge, discharge, and control transistors. This invention is equally effective in CMOS, NMOS, or PMOS technologies.

Abstract: A random access read/write MOS memory device consisting of an array of rows and columns of one-transistor memory cells employs a bistable sense amplifier circuit at the center of each column. The sense amplifier is of the dynamic type in that coupling transistors connect the column line halves to the cross-coupled driver transistors. The sources of the driver transistors are connected to ground through a sequentially timed, three step grounding arrangement employing two transistors, one having a dual channel implanted to provide two different threshold voltages. Active load devices connected to the column line halves provide pull-up of the voltage on the one-going column line half to a full Vdd level.

Abstract: A system and method is provided for forming semiconductor tear-drop shaped bodies having minimal grain boundaries. Semiconductor material is melted in a capillary tube at the top of a tower, and forced under gas pressure through a nozzle. Separate semiconductor bodies are formed. They are passed through a free fall path over which a predetermined temperature gradient controls solidification of the bodies. The resultant bodies are tear-drop semiconductor bodies of near uniform size with minimal grain boundaries.