Abstract: An improvement in the manufacture of radio frequency identification tags employs an antenna stamped from a thin metallic sheet and affixed to a substrate at a first location to establish an intermediate product in which the stamped antenna is affixed to the substrate, and the intermediate product is placed at at least one subsequent location for further processing toward completion of a radio frequency identification tag.

Abstract: In the manufacture of RFID tags, electronic components are connected with soldered connections to antennas stamped from a thin strip of electrically conductive metal, utilizing methods and intermediate products which enable accurate registration of the leads of the electronic components with contacts on the antennas. Thus, a strip of metal is provided with contact members unitary with the strip and coupled to the strip through compliant coupling arrangements which allow compliant movement of the contact members relative to the strip for accurate alignment with electronic components juxtaposed with the contact members for soldered connections between the leads of the electronic components and the corresponding contact members. The antennas, with the electronic components soldered in place, are carried by a substrate, and the sequence of the stamping and soldering operations avoids exposing the substrate to the heat of soldering.

Abstract: In the manufacture of RFID tags, electronic components are connected with soldered connections to antennas stamped from a thin strip of electrically conductive metal, utilizing methods and intermediate products which enable accurate registration of the leads of the electronic components with contacts on the antennas. Thus, a strip of metal is provided with contact members unitary with the strip and coupled to the strip through compliant coupling arrangements which allow compliant movement of the contact members relative to the strip for accurate alignment with electronic components juxtaposed with the contact members for soldered connections between the leads of the electronic components and the corresponding contact members. The antennas, with the electronic components soldered in place, are carried by a substrate, and the sequence of the stamping and soldering operations avoids exposing the substrate to the heat of soldering.

Abstract: An improvement in the manufacture of radio frequency identification tags employs an antenna stamped from a thin metallic sheet and affixed to a substrate at a first location to establish an intermediate product in which the stamped antenna is affixed to the substrate, and the intermediate product is placed at at least one subsequent location for further processing toward completion of a radio frequency identification tag.

Abstract: A shielding enclosure has an access opening for enabling selective access to a component placed in the shielding enclosure, a closure member and a connector section selectively expansible and contractible to enable the closure member to be captured within the access opening upon expansion of the connecting section to complete shielding of the component and to be disengaged from the access opening upon contraction of the connecting section. In the preferred construction, the connecting section is in the form of a perforated web having beams oriented oblique to the directions of expansion and contraction, and the shielding enclosure is made in one piece from a single blank of shielding material.

Abstract: A shielding gasket is affixed to a shield housing for interposition between the shield housing and a circuit board of an electronic device. The circuit board includes a plurality of electronic components and related circuitry and the arrangement of the shield housing and the shielding gasket provide for inter-component shielding of the plural electronic components from one another, together with corresponding related circuitry, as well as overall shielding of the plural electronic components on the circuit board. To that end, the shielding gasket includes partitions integral with the shielding gasket for extending between the electronic components, the partitions engaging the shield housing such that the shield housing and the partitions complete inter-component shielding of the electronic components and related circuitry from one another.

Abstract: A shielding contactor device in which a longitudinally extending strip of electrically conductive material carries a plurality of contactors having contact arms extending longitudinally along the strip, each contact arm having a contact finger spaced altitudinally from the strip, is provided with an improvement wherein the contact finger extends from the contact arm to establish a generally L-shaped contactor and the contact arm is twisted in permanent deformation for torsionally biasing the contact finger in the altitudinal direction.

Abstract: A smart card reader includes a housing having a rectangular plan configuration and housing members secured together by sets of complementary overlapping tabs located at the four corners of the rectangular housing and joined together, as by welding. Some of the sets include locator elements on one of the tabs of the set for locating the overlapped tabs accurately relative to one another to assure accurate dimensions in the completed housing. A stiffener plate is secured to at least one of the housing members, as by welding at spaced apart locations along the stiffener plate, to add stiffness to the housing. A lead-in ramp assists in leading the smart card from an inlet section of the reader into an intermediate section of the reader for connection to an electrical connector located in a connector section of the reader.

Abstract: A flexible electrical contact is formed as a convex dome structure extending from one side of a surrounding structure, with the convex dome structure and the surrounding structure forming an integral metallic structure. The convex dome structure includes a central contact portion and a number of legs extending between the central contact portion and the surrounding structure. Each leg extends radially outward from the central contact portion and circumferentially around part of the central contact portion. A number of convex dome structures of this kind may be part of a removable shield in an electronic enclosure, provided to electrically ground the shield to a conductive frame, reducing the level of RFI (radio frequency interference) emissions from a device. Alternately, a number of convex dome structures may be provided along spring strips fastened to such a shield. In such spring strips, electrical contact may occur between the shield and intermediate positions along the length of the legs.

Abstract: An enclosure for a personal computer card is constructed by folding a single sheet of material into confronting upper and lower enclosure members which are then secured together in the confronting arrangement by nested side walls and channels formed along peripheral edges of the enclosure members to house an electronic device within the enclosure.

Abstract: An enclosure for a personal computer card is constructed of a single sheet of material folded into confronting upper and lower enclosure members secured together in the confronting arrangement by nested side walls and channels formed along peripheral edges of the enclosure members to house an electronic device within the enclosure.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for manufacturing formed, plated component parts in a continuous production run which includes component parts of alternate configurations by advancing a strip of material of indeterminate length, within which strip the component parts are carried, through a plating operation continuously while the forming operation is modified to accommodate the alternate configurations without interrupting the continuity of the plating operation so as to enable relatively long uninterrupted production runs which include, within the longer runs, shorter runs of each of the alternate configurations. In addition, the formed and plated component parts are severed from the strip by a severing operation which is modified to accommodate the alternate configurations to deliver individual formed, plated component parts.

Abstract: A tracking circuit for guiding a beam of light along data tracks of a recorded medium as compact disks and video disks, in which the recorded medium reflects a light beam onto a photodetector. The photodetector has an output voltage that is applied to a servo through a variable-gain amplifier. A compensation voltage is superimposed over the output voltage from the photodetector during the open state of the circuit to compensate off said voltages. This compensation voltage is varied until the sum of the output voltage from the photodetector and the compensation voltage attains a predetermined value. Thereafter the circuit is closed.

Abstract: An arrangement for playing back data read out of data tracks on a recorded medium, in which a tracking circuit positions a beam of light on data tracks of the recorded medium. From a photodetector with a plurality of photodiodes, there are generated a data signal, a focusing-error signal, and a tracking-error signal. These signals result from the beam of light that is reflected by the recorded medium onto the photodetector. An offset-compensation voltage is applied to one input of a tracking control amplifier in the tracking circuit. The tracking error signal is generated from photovoltages of predetermined ones of photodiodes. The offset-compensation voltage is varied until one of the photovoltages is equal to the sum of the offset-compensation voltage and of another one of the photovoltages to maintain the operating point of the tracking circuit at an optimal midpoint.

Abstract: An arrangement for selectively playing back and recording data in which a rotating disk-shaped recording medium is provided with data storage tracks. An optical system reads the stored data by guiding a light beam along the data storage tracks. The data read by the optical pickup system is decoded by a decoder which has an error output that emits a pulse for every bit error. The light beam strikes the disk-shaped recording medium at an angle and has a vector component which is tangential to the recording medium or disk, so that when the angle is 90.degree., the vector component is zero. The bit errors are applied to a counter that provides the corresponding bit-error rate and provides a signal for controlling the adjustment for varying the vector component so as to maintain the bit-error rate below a predetermined threshold.

Abstract: A mounting bracket is affixed to a computer circuit board by tubular projections formed unitary with mounting lugs on the mounting bracket and passed through complementary mounting holes in the circuit board, the tubular projections being upset to establish a flanged headed portion on each tubular projection, which flanged headed portion is urged against the circuit board with a controlled force to clamp the circuit board between the flanged headed portion and the mounting lug with a securing force which is independent of variations in the thickness of the circuit board.

Abstract: A system is provided for evaluating a subcode of a digital information transmission. Such transmission occurs in particular in the context of scanning of compact disc recordings. Data blocks of a digital signal including a subcode of several segments and associated with a large redundancy are present as an additional signal, and these data blocks are separately evaluated with respect to each segment of the subcode corresponding to a data block. The digital signals are preferably audio or video signals. It is possible to intermediately store the data of each segment and to continuously compare the data of each segment of a preceding intermediately stored data segment. The preceding intermediately stored data segment can be the immediate sequential predecessor of the data segment under consideration. The segments of a data block can be evaluated successively according to a time multiplexing method.

Abstract: In a control loop for automatically adjusting variable-gain amplification, a sinusoidal signal with a frequency f.sub.o that is critical for the control loop is superimposed over a positioning parameter W. Two synchronous rectifiers S1 and S2 filter out the oscillation components of a control parameter x and of a control difference x.sub.d that contain frequency f.sub.o, and the components are compared in a comparator VL. A control and regulating circuit C continues to vary the variable-gain amplification at controls RG until the amplitudes of the oscillation components being compared in the comparator are equal. The variable-gain amplification is correct at that point. The variable-gain amplification can even be adjusted in a compact-disk player while the player is in operation.

Abstract: According to the disclosed method for the compensation of the offset voltage of a regulating amplifier (RV), the output of the regulating amplifier (RV) is separated from the regulating unit (SJ) of the regulating circuit. The value of the measured offset compensation voltage is stored. Once the offset compensation voltage has been measured and recorded, the output of the regulating amplifier (RV) is again connected to the regulating unit (SG) of the regulating circuit. The stored offset compensation voltage is applied to the input of the regulating amplifier (RV). Said method is used for example in the focus regulating circuit of a DC record player. Each time the compact-type record player is switched off and switched on again, the offset compensation voltage is again measured, stored and reapplied to the input of the regulating amplifier (RV).

Abstract: A focus controller for a player for rotating optically scanned information-based disks has an optical scanner with a focus actuator driven by a transformer. The loop amplification of the control circuit is controlled in accordance with a control signal that varies inversely as a function of the type and frequency of the disk errors.