Abstract: A portable reader is arranged to read a card. The card is provided with a set of contact areas. The reader is provided with a connector. The connector is provided with a set of contact pads. The portable reader comprises a first and a second holding elements arranged to hold the card so that at least one contact pad of the set contact pads can be connected to at least one contact area of the set of contact areas. At least the one of the holding elements is arranged to be movable.

Abstract: The invention relates to an apparatus usable for ionizing a gas comprising a cathode serving as a hot or cold cathode and to a process for using this apparatus. The apparatus includes a facing cathode and anode, the gas to be ionized successively traversing the cathode and the anode. The apparatus is characterized in that the cathode is formed by a first and second cylindrical half-electrode in face-to-face relation, the gas to be ionized passing between the half-electrode and a conductive filament connected by a first end to the first half-electrode and by a second end to the second half-electrode and located between the half-electrodes. The invention applied to all apparatuses used for ionizing a gas, such as electric arcs, unoplasmatrons and duoplasmatrons.

Abstract: A metal vapor source with a regulatable flow rate comprising an enclosure filled with said vapor, means for heating said enclosure to a first temperature, a tube connected to the enclosure and means for heating said tube to a second regulatable temperature, the first temperature being maintained above the second temperature.An ion analyzer comprising an enclosure in which is disposed a target to be analyzed, a lens for extracting secondary ions whose front face faces the target, an enclosure filled with an alkaline vapor, means for heating said enclosure to a first regulatable temperature, a vapor outflow tube connected to one end of the enclosure, while the other end penetrates the analyzer enclosure, traverses the extraction lens and assumes a position level with the front face of the extraction lens and means for heating said tube to a second regulatable temperature, the first temperature being kept above the second temperature of the outflow tube.

Abstract: The method for controlling the migration of an electronegative chemical species within a solid substrate which exhibits ionic conduction consists in irradiating the substrate with electrons which have sufficient energy to penetrate into the substrate and to produce therein metastable excited negative ions of said species and in applying to said substrate an electric field having a direction opposite to the desired direction of migration.