Abstract: In an installation for conveying delicate objects such as semiconductor layers during processing operations and for handling such objects in a controlled atmosphere, wheeled carriages are drawn along tracks by an endless belt and are not driven by motors in order to satisfy conditions of cleanliness and freedom from pollution hazards. By means of transfer tools, object-holding cassettes are taken from the carriages during operation and replaced on the carriages after processing in the different machines.

Abstract: In order to form aluminum interconnections through a thick insulating layer in an integrated circuit without any attendant danger of rupture at the level of the contact openings in the insulating layer between the interconnection layer and the substrate, the contact openings are first filled with polycrystalline silicon or a metal having high covering power and deposited by chemical decomposition in gas phase, whereupon the aluminum is deposited by vacuum evaporation.

Abstract: A process for manufacturing high-resistance elements for integrated circuits, in which the resistors are positioned on a layer of silica covering an integrated circuit, in a polycrystalline silicon zone possessing high resistivity, current supply lines being formed of a layer of polycrystalline silicon possessing low resistivity, surmounted by a layer of tantalum silicide. Plugs of photosensitive resin, deposited on a layer of polycrystalline silicon, are used to mark out a zone where the resistor is to be positioned, from zones in which resistivity is reduced by doping, and also to "lift-off" the layer of tantalum silicide on top of the resistor position.

Abstract: An elastic underwear garment which consists at least for its major part of elastic fabric the resilient fibers of which extend obliquely with respect to the longitudinal axis of the garment and form with said axis an angle at most equal to 60.degree..