Abstract: The method of the invention establishes a reference state and a current state for an industrial evolutionary process from physical parameters measured on all the equipment items employing the evaluating process. These two states are compared, parameter by parameter, by resorting to fuzzy logic for classifying the quantities, and a diagnosis is established using expert rules.

Abstract: A frequency synthesizer with very short acquisition times. With a single loop there is associated a direct digital synthesizer whose signal is injected into the loop by means of a mixer. The adjustment of the loop is done on Np.Fr and the adjustment of the digital synthesis is done on (Ns+)Fr with Np, Ns, K and M as integers, Np being greater than Ns, 0.ltoreq.K<M, M as a fixed value and where Fr is a reference frequency. The mixture makes it possible to obtain, as a synthesis frequency, (Ns+Np+)Fr. The acquisition time of the digital synthesis is negligible and that of the loop is greatly reduced since it synthesizes steps that are multiples of Fr and not of as with a standard single loop.

Abstract: The invention concerns a charge-to-voltage converter including a read diode and a read transistor of no-load gain G.sub.o. The converter includes complementary circuits assuring a conversion gain greater than G.sub.o during read periods and a conversion gain substantially equal zero at other times.

Abstract: An electromagnetic wave detector formed of semiconductor materials includes at least one quantum well in which there is provided a fine layer of a material with a gap width that is smaller than that of the quantum well layer. For example, in the case of a GaAlAs/GaAs/GaAlAs, there is provision for a fine layer of InAs. In this way, the difference of energy levels between the two permitted levels is increased and detection of short wavelengths may be accomplished.

Abstract: A novel redundancy architecture for an integrated-circuit memory is utilized having no redundancy columns separate from the useful columns but with each useful column, except for the first column, serving as a redundancy column for any adjacent defective column. If a column of order j, normally designated by an output of order j of the column decoder DC, is serviceable, it is actually this column which will be selected by the corresponding output of the decoder DC. On the other hand, if the column is defective, no specialized remote redundancy column will be sought for the repair but instead the output of the decoder will be made to select the following column (order j+1), which would normally have been designated by the following output (order j+1) of the decoder. The other decoder output will be routed towards a third column (order j+2), etc. Therefore, the links between the decoder outputs and the column used will be progressively offset.

Abstract: This gun comprises a cathode K, a grid G, and an anode A between which the applied voltages are radio-frequency voltages. The cathode is disposed on the central conductor of a coaxial cavity, facing said grid terminating said cavity. Said cavity is terminated at the other end by a short-circuit and includes a coaxial branch line so as to resonate at two frequencies F.sub.1 and F.sub.2 multiple of f.sub.0, whose beating induces a radio-frequency grid-cathode voltage. Said grid terminates another coaxial cavity whose central conductor is hollow and whose end facing said grid forms the anode. said other coaxial cavity resonator is excited and resonates at a frequency F.sub.0 multiple of f.sub.0, which induces a radio-frequency anode-grid voltage.A proper selection of the frequencies F.sub.0, F.sub.1, F.sub.2 allows to obtain electrons bunches of very short duration.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for the measurement, by means of a radar, of the distance from a useful obstacle that is surrounded by parasitic obstacles but sends back an echo which is more powerful than their echos. This method of measurement can be applied to the measuring of the level of liquid in a vessel. It consists in transmitting a sequence of non-modulated microwave signals whose discrete angular frequencies are evenly distributed in a certain frequency band, demodulating the signals received in return for the transmitted signals, subjecting the received and demodulated signals to a reverse and discrete Fourier transform with a view to a coarse localization of the delay of the echo from the useful obstacle and a high resolution method for the localization of the radiating sources with a view to a more precise localization of the delay of the echo from the useful obstacle, said delay enabling the assessment of the distance from the useful obstacle to the radar. FIG. 5.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for determining the rank of ambiguity in terms of distance of radar echoes. In a sequence comprising a given number N of recurrences, the method consists, in a first step, in making a retrograde prediction of an echo for the P first recurrences on the basis of the echoes received in the Q last recurrences, in a second step in comparing the echoes actually received in the P first recurrences with the predicted echo and in a third step in determining the rank of ambiguity in distance as a function of the result of the comparison, the rank of ambiguity of an echo being the integer immediately greater than the highest rank of the first recurrences where the difference between the predicted echo and the actually received echo exceeds a threshold that is at least equal to the prediction noise multiplied by a factor of adjustment K. The sum of the numbers P and Q is smaller than or equal to the number N, and is preferably equal to this number N. Application to surveillance or tracking radar.

Abstract: The invention concerns rapid, precise analog-to-digital converters (ADC). To achieve rapid conversion, the invention uses a fast though imprecise ADC, whose numeric output value is used to address a memory location in a first memory block containing correction values. Calibration measurements are inserted between conversion measurements, the time intervals being sufficient to establish a stable reference voltage at the output of a generator. The switching between conversion and calibration measurements is made using a switch. During calibration, the differences between the conversion results and the real values are written into a second memory block at addresses corresponding to the numeric output values of the ADC. Means of control and calculation enable sequencing and switching of the roles of the calibration and correction memory blocks at the end of a calibration.

Abstract: A method and system for preventing cross-talk during reproduction of data recorded on a high density recording medium. The method includes the steps of receiving signals from at least three consecutively parallel information tracks on a recording medium, determining first and second cross-talk coefficients representing a degree of cross-talk between the three parallel information tracks, filtering the first and second cross-talk coefficients, correcting the cross-talk between the first, second, and third information tracks in accordance with the first and second cross-talk coefficients, forming a difference between the first and second cross-talk coefficients and integrating this difference to generate a track following correction signal, and repeating the above steps for each of the information tracks on the recording medium.

Abstract: This optical device has, in the rear of the projectile, a retro-reflector fitted out with a polarizer and, at the projectile firing station, a light source whose beam illuminates the rear of the projectile, and a light flux analyzer deducing the roll angle of the projectile from the direction of polarization of the light flux reflected by this projectile, wherein the polarizer is a polarizer with refraction index discontinuity positioned on the rear of the projectile, before the retro-reflector, with an angle of inclination between the direction normal to its plane of index variation and the longitudinal axis of the projectile chosen to be greater than the Brewster angle, and wherein the light source is offset laterally with respect to firing axis of the projectile, these two measurements giving rise to a modulation of intensity of the reflected light beam as a function of the roll angle plus or minus 2.pi.

Abstract: A closing device, for airtight closing of a package by use of a removable lid, has a facing lid fixedly joined to the package and springs made of shape memory alloy resting on the lid and the facing lid. The facing lid may be fixedly joined to the package by brackets or by other fixing mechanisms. These fixing mechanisms may include screws or may include a groove and tongue arrangement. The fixing mechanism may also include a ring made of a shape memory alloy forcing a flexible part of the facing plate against the package.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for the management of the beam of an electronically scanned rotating antenna. For each antenna rotation, the sequencing of the commands is organized in three phases associated with zones of the space: a first phase of preparation of the requested aiming operations before their entry into the visibility cone of the antenna; a second phase of carrying out the requested aiming operations present in the visibility cone; a third phase of identifying the requested aiming operations that have come out from the visibility cone and have not been carried out. Application to multi-function radars.

Abstract: In front of the driver there is arranged a screen (20) with a variable transmission coefficient. The headlamps (10, 11) of the vehicle send out periodic pulses of short duration with respect to the period. The transmission coefficient of the screen (20, 23, 24) varies in such a way that it is transparent during the duration of the light pulses and that the screen is substantially less transparent between these pulses.

Abstract: In a method of communicating data between a transmission/reception center and a target, a transaction is constituted by one or more interrogation pulses sent out by the center followed by one or more associated reception windows designed to receive the response from the target that has been sent the associated interrogation pulse. The length of a transaction is the delay between its interrogation pulse and its reception window, the transactions are classified and positioned according to their distances from the radar in decreasing order. The reception window of each transaction is transmitted immediately before the window of the immediately lower-ranking transaction so long as its associated pulse does not overlap an interrogation pulse of a transaction.

Abstract: A device for heating up electronic boards to be mounted between opposing board-guide walls having parallel guidance grooves therein and a back allowing for interconnections. The device comprises a heating element arranged in at least one of the board-guide walls on a side which is opposite to the guidance grooves, heat exchange fins associated with the heating element, and vents in the board-guide walls arranged between the guidance grooves. This arrangement allows for the circulation of heated air by the fins between the boards by natural or forced convection.

Abstract: Laser active imaging system allowing in particular to use a wide field by means of a detecting device including a linear array of N juxtaposed photodetector elements oriented along the direction of scanning and associated with a focusing lens. The receiver includes a circuitry receiving the N detected channels and is equipped with compensation circuits for the time shift exhibited by the video signals as a function of the distance so as to bring the illuminated objects back to their angular location for the display of the observed field. The processing circuits include circuits for measuring the amplitude and the Doppler shift and for identification of the distance through the rank of the detection channel.

Abstract: Disclosed is a structure at least partially comprising a composite material, the material being made by means of sheets of fibers embedded in a matrix, the different sheets forming plies of the material, the material comprising intrinsic means for the detection and localization of a mechanical irregularity, these means comprising at least one polarization-maintaining birefrigent optical fiber having a so-called slow axis and a so-called fast axis, embedded in the matrix and describing a known path inside the material, wherein the optical fiber is included inside a casing with an internal diameter that is greater than the external diameter of the fiber.

Abstract: It consists of several channels (V1, V2) in parallel, which exhibit an inter-transducer gap difference (2.sub.1 -4.sub.1 ; 2.sub.2 -4.sub.2) equal to an even multiple of the half-wavelength (.lambda.) at the central frequency, from one channel to the next, so as to cancel the delay line transfer function which corresponds to the direct path between transducers.

Abstract: In a method for the plastification of documents punched out of a sheet, with a plastic cover being fixed to a document, at least two first reference markers are made on the cover, the positions of the first reference markers being defined beforehand with respect to the punch-out line of the document. The position of the punch-out line of the unit constituted by the document and the cover being defined beforehand with respect to at least two reference markers, the unit is punched out when the first and second reference markers coincide. Application to the plastification of all printed documents.