Patents Examined by Davis L. Willis
  • Patent number: 5517032
    Abstract: A set of optical lens elements coupled with a diode array spectrophotometer employed to measure thickness of thin films especially on semiconductor substrates is disclosed. The system comprises an optical sample compartment and deep ultraviolet diode array spectrophotometer manufactured by Hewlett-Packard. The sample compartment consists of a pair of prisms coupled with a pair of convex lenses. Prisms and convex lenses are used in a reflective mode instead of their usual transmissive mode, and therefore act like mirrors. This enables the ultraviolet beam to converge at the surface of semiconductor wafer sample at a single point with an almost normal incident angle, thereby introducing a large depth of focus with a small spot size. Also a condensing lens in front of the Deuterium lamp slowly reduces the beam diameter. Diode array spectrophotometer employs a sealed spectrophotometer that includes an entrance slit, a holographic grating, and a diode array detector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 1994
    Date of Patent: May 14, 1996
    Assignee: Transoptics, Inc.
    Inventor: Behzad Imani
  • Patent number: 5514872
    Abstract: An alpha detector for application in areas of high velocity gas flows, such as smokestacks and air vents. A plurality of spaced apart signal collectors are placed inside an enclosure, which would include smokestacks and air vents, in sufficient numbers to substantially span said enclosure so that gas ions generated within the gas flow are electrostatically captured by the signal collector means. Electrometer means and a voltage source are connected to the signal collectors to generate an electrical field between adjacent signal collectors, and to indicate a current produced through collection of the gas ions by the signal collectors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 1995
    Date of Patent: May 7, 1996
    Assignee: The Regents of the University of California
    Inventors: Richard D. Bolton, John A. Bounds, Mohini W. Rawool-Sullivan
  • Patent number: 5510620
    Abstract: To detect a contaminant in a moving container, radiant energy is directed into the moving container. Thereafter, a level of radiant energy scattered by contents of the moving container is detected. The presence of a contaminant is indicated when the detected level of scattered radiant energy differs from a threshold level. Scattered radiant energy detected by the system includes that scattered by turbid materials within the container and that scattered by foam within the container. Detection of turbid materials or foam may be combined with spectral contaminant detection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 1994
    Date of Patent: April 23, 1996
    Assignee: Thermedics Detection, Inc.
    Inventors: Eugene K. Achter, David Lieb, John S. Beaty, Helmut W. Klotzsch, Craig D. Thompson, Jonathan Bosworth
  • Patent number: 5510621
    Abstract: An apparatus for measuring components in a liquid medium, in particular parenteral nutrients, within a flexible transparent bag. A spacer is utilized to fix or determine the optical path across the bag chamber and includes a passage for electromagnetic radiation of selected wavelengths. The source of electromagnetic radiation is capable of sending radiation into the bag chamber and to detector means which analyzes the radiation passed through or reflected from the components in the bag chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 1994
    Date of Patent: April 23, 1996
    Assignee: Optical Solutions, Inc.
    Inventor: Don S. Goldman
  • Patent number: 5508514
    Abstract: The invention concerns a well logging device with a pad, characterized in that the pad has a nuclear sensor with a gamma ray source and two detectors separated by a space in the longitudinal direction, and a second sensor of different type located in said space, preferably a micro-resistivity sensor with electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 1994
    Date of Patent: April 16, 1996
    Inventors: Alan J. Sallwasser, Philippe Chevalier, Kevin E. Eyl
  • Patent number: 5508523
    Abstract: A dosimeter product that simplifies the process of dosimetry in medical diagnosis, therapy and other fields where high precision is needed. The dosimeter product is obtained by a unique training method which stabilizes the sensitivity of the dosimeter. Stability in sensitivity is established by a combination of high temperature cyclical annealing and low temperature furnace annealing. After the sensitivity of the dosimeters is stabilized, the dosimeters are then calibrated by generating for every dosimeter within a group element correction coefficients (ECCs) that compensate for the differences in sensitivity among the group of the dosimeters, bringing the sensitivity of each dosimeter to the sensitivity of the mean of the population. The result is a group of precalibrated dosimeters with stable sensitivity that are ready to use with established correction factors for individual TL response differences.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 1994
    Date of Patent: April 16, 1996
    Assignee: Saint Gobain/Norton Industrial Ceramics Corp.
    Inventors: Riad A. Tawil, Philip M. Pontikos, Kenneth J. Velbeck, Joseph E. Rotunda
  • Patent number: 5506407
    Abstract: A high speed high resolution solid film measuring apparatus and method uses coherent monochromatic light by passing the coherent monochromatic light through the solid film and referencing the degree of absorption to known or on-line measured reference values. The measuring apparatus and method accounts for difference in clarity and translucency to derive a running analysis of the solid film thickness. Resolution and speed of the measuring apparatus provides for the adaptation of the measuring device to on-line manufacturing systems as part of a feedback control loop through the manufacturing process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 1993
    Date of Patent: April 9, 1996
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company
    Inventors: John S. Huizinga, John J. Costello, III
  • Patent number: 5504337
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for identifying individual particles or cells which have been labeled with different fluorochromes, on the basis of the lifetime of their fluorescence, or based on different decay times for a fluorochrome in different cells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 1993
    Date of Patent: April 2, 1996
    Assignee: Joseph R. Lakowicz
    Inventors: Joseph R. Lakowicz, Klaus W. Berndt, Robert A. Hoffman, Bertram G. Pinsky
  • Patent number: 5502303
    Abstract: A slow positron source having a cylindrical geometry which permits increased conversion efficiency from high energy into low energy positrons. A thin walled inner cylinder is filled with a positron emitting liquid radioisotope and is separated from an outer cylinder by an annular cavity. The outer cylinder surrounds the inner cylinder and is coated with a high atomic number material thick enough to stop all the positrons while providing a high fraction of backscattered positrons. A thin layer of moderator is also deposited on the inner surface of the outer cylinder. A positively biased pusher disk is placed at one end of the cylinders, while a negatively biased extraction grid is placed at the other end of the cylinders for extracting the low energy moderated positrons from the cavity so as to form a substantially monoenergetic positron beam. The positron beam is directed to impinge upon an annihilation screen at selected points using standard CRT focusing and deflection arrangements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 1994
    Date of Patent: March 26, 1996
    Assignee: Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
    Inventor: Carlos Gonzalez-Lepera
  • Patent number: 5500536
    Abstract: A fluorescence output port sandwiched between light-shielding members of a sample cell is provided at a position corresponding to an entrance slit of a fluorescence monochromator and an excitation light side port of the sample cell is provided at a position corresponding to an exit slit of an excitation side monochromator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 1994
    Date of Patent: March 19, 1996
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Taro Nogami, Shunichi Matsuura, Akira Kuroda
  • Patent number: 5495514
    Abstract: An x-ray diagnostics installation has an x-ray source connected to a parameter setting unit which sets exposure parameters (operating characteristics) of the x-ray source, and an x-ray image intensifier video chain. The x-ray image intensifier video chain includes a processing circuit connected to a video pick-up stage and a motion detector. The processing unit controls the parameters of a filter unit for chronological filtering of the video signal. The motion detector is connected to the parameter setting unit for the x-ray source, and controls the filter unit depending on the exposure parameters which are set for a given exposure, such as the level of the video signal, the tube voltage, the radiation dose, and the imaging format of the x-ray image intensifier, all of which are set at the parameter setting unit and which characterize the exposure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 1994
    Date of Patent: February 27, 1996
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Heinz Horbaschek, Heinz Eschenbacher
  • Patent number: 5493561
    Abstract: An optical information recording medium, wherein concave and convex shaped guide grooves narrower in width W than the spot diameter of the laser beam is formed in the face of the recording film layer of a substrate, and the recording film layer undergoes optically detectable changes caused by the application of a laser beam thereto, the detectable changes being due to the changes in the optical phase of the reflected light or the transmitted light, and the changes in the optical phase being caused in the direction of reducing the optical phase difference between concave and convex portions of guide grooves disposed in the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 1993
    Date of Patent: February 20, 1996
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kenichi Nishiuchi, Nobuo Akahira, Noboru Yamada, Eiji Ohno, Ken'ichi Nagata
  • Patent number: 5491344
    Abstract: A method and system for examining the composition of a fluid or solid sample using fluorescence and/or absorption spectroscopy. In one embodiment, the system is adapted for use in examining liquid effluents as they elute from the end of a liquid chromatography column and comprises a Nd:YAG laser coupled to a harmonic generator. Pulses of the fourth harmonic therefrom are focused into a Raman shifter filled with a mixture of hydrogen and methane gases. The laser pulses have an intensity sufficient to produce an array of different-colored laser pulses by stimulated Raman scattering within the Raman shifter. These different-colored pulses are then dispersed according to their respective wavelengths and then launched into a plurality of optical fibers. The fibers tranmit the different-colored pulses to a specially-designed detection cell, where they simultaneously excite a flowing fluid sample contained within the cell at the same point of axial fluid flow.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 1993
    Date of Patent: February 13, 1996
    Assignee: Tufts University
    Inventors: Jonathan E. Kenny, Todd A. Taylor
  • Patent number: 5490129
    Abstract: An optical head is used in a magnetic field modulation type magnetooptical recording/reproducing apparatus. The optical head includes a device for irradiating a magnetooptical record medium with a light beam, a separating device for separating a reflected light beam from the magnetooptical record medium into two beams to be projected onto a single plane, a single photodetector provided with two two-divided light receiving portions for respectively receiving the two beams, and a single convex lens element for forming images of the two beams as light spots on the single photodetector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 1993
    Date of Patent: February 6, 1996
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kazuhiko Matsuoka, Seiichiro Satomura, Katuya Yamazaki, Takeshi Yamawaki
  • Patent number: 5488227
    Abstract: A gas analyser and detector has an infra red source, a gas chamber and a detector cell; the detector cell has a gas sample inlet, inlet and exit paths for an infra red beam and reflector means in the chamber comprising a convex surface and a concave surface. The reflector means ensures a long path length for the beam whilst reducing beam divergence and signal loss.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 30, 1996
    Assignee: Geotechnical Instruments (UK) Limited
    Inventor: Christopher R. Sweet
  • Patent number: 5488226
    Abstract: An thermal imaging device having a transparent substrate, an active multiple quantum well (MQW) epilayer with bottom electrical contacts bonded to the substrate, wherein the substrate is cut such that its thermal expansion coefficient is matched or roughly matched to that of the MQW epilayer in the direction parallel to the long axis of the bottom contacts and so that the thermal expansion coefficient of the substrate is mismatched in a direction normal to the long axis of the bottom contacts. Infrared radiation incident on each unit cell of the n.times.m array will produce a temperature change .DELTA.T in the MQW which will produce stress normal to the long axis of the bottom contacts. The uniaxial stress produced by the temperature changes .DELTA.T breaks the rotation symmetry in the plane of the MQW structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 30, 1996
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army
    Inventors: Gerald J. Iafrate, Mitra Dutta, Paul H. Shen, Michael A. Stroscio
  • Patent number: 5485016
    Abstract: A mass spectrometer for analyzing trace impurities on a level between ppt and ppb contained in silicon material gas such as monosilane gas. The mass spectrometer includes an ion formation region, reaction region, and mass analysis region. Ion formation gas is introduced into the ion formation region and sample gas (silicon material gas) is introduced into the reaction region. The ion formation region ionizes ion formation gas by an ionizer and forms primary ions. When the pressure of ion formation gas is made higher than the pressure of sample gas, the ion formation gas flows into the reaction region from the ion formation region together with primary ions and is mixed with the sample gas. In the reaction region, an ion-molecule reaction is produced between the primary ions and trace impurities contained in the sample gas and the trace impurities contained in the sample gas are ionized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 16, 1996
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Tokyo Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takashi Irie, Yasuhiro Mitsui, Kazuaki Mizokami, Katsumi Kuriyama
  • Patent number: 5483075
    Abstract: A rotary scanning apparatus for scanning a plurality of separation lanes where the separation lanes are disposed in a nonplanar array. The scanning apparatus includes an optical detection system for detecting radiation emanating from the separation lanes, the optical detection system including collection optics for collecting and focusing the radiation, a detector for measuring the intensity of the radiation, and a rotary scanner for providing relative movement between the collection optics and the separation lanes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 9, 1996
    Assignee: Perkin-Elmer Corporation
    Inventors: Douglas H. Smith, Charels R. Connell
  • Patent number: 5483072
    Abstract: An x-ray machine, such as a mammography machine, comprises a source of a narrow beam of radiation which scans across an object, e.g., a breast, to be imaged. A sensor for the narrow beam moves in the same direction as the narrow beam. The sensor generates an output signal which indicates the position of the beam relative to a specific location on the sensor. A control circuit receives the signal from the sensor and outputs a control signal to regulate the position of the beam relative to the sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 9, 1996
    Assignee: Bennett X-Ray Technologies
    Inventor: Robert P. Coe
  • Patent number: 5481114
    Abstract: The simultaneous selective detection of neutrons and X or gamma photons is disclosed, employing two scintillators. One scintillator uses a first doped scintillation detector that is sensitive to neutrons, while the second doped scintillation device is sensitive to X or gamma photons whereby the scintillations occurring at the two devices are in distinct and separate energy bands.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 2, 1996
    Assignee: Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique
    Inventors: Georges Daniel, Edouard Marienbach, Jean-Louis Szabo