Abstract: An analog-to-digital converter includes a constant current source that alternately charges and discharges the capacitor between predetermined levels. The difference between the rate of charging and the rate of discharging of the capacitor provide information permitting a digital representation of the input signal. The single current source operates without change during the charging and discharging of the capacitor and has temperature compensation that eliminates potential errors due to instabilities in the ambient temperature.

Abstract: An environmental testing facility for verifying operational conditions of electronic components at predefined temperature extremes is described. A removable multistation holder is configured to have a plurality of components coupled thereto. The multistation holder is coupled to a controllable, rotatable shaft. A hood is placed over the holder, shaft and associated apparatus and placed in contact with a base plate, so that a vacuum can be established in the resulting chamber. A sensing device permits the positioning of the individual components with respect to an interface apparatus. When the component is correctly positioned with respect to the interface apparatus, the interface apparatus is moved to engage the terminals of the components. The electrical signals can be applied to and received from the component through the interface device. After a first temperature condition is established for the multistation holder and consequently for the components coupled thereto, all of the components are tested.

Abstract: A voltage reference supply circuit is described that provides temperature compensation over a wide range of temperatures. The circuit includes a plurality of thermistor temperature dependent elements and these thermistor elements are utilized to compensate for the variation in the reference potential voltage of the Zener diode. The compensation is provided by determining the output voltage as a function of the circuit parameters and by varying pre-established resistive values in known ranges until the variations in the output voltage with temperature have been reduced below a predetermined value over the entire prescribed temperature range. Using this procedure, a variation in output voltage over the temperature range of -55.degree. C. to +125.degree. C. can be held within 50 parts per million.

Abstract: In a ring laser gyroscope having a triangular optical resonator with mirrors at its corners, in order to prevent lock-in, a portion of the light from the beams that passes through the mirrors at the corners is fed back into the clockwise and counter-clockwise beams after being passed through an optical resonator containing a nonreciprocal phase shifter.

Abstract: In a ring laser gyroscope which has a triangular block configuration, and which incorporates a triangular shaped laser resonant cavity defined by three corner mirrors, including an output mirror, the gyroscope is sinusoidally dithered to reduce lock-in effects at low angular rotational rates and the gyroscope output is corrected for error caused by lock-in at the extremities of each oscillation when the dither velocity is equal to zero by accumulating the ac voltage outputs of a photodiode measuring the light intensity of the interference pattern at each zero dither velocity and when the accumulated phase error reaches 2.pi. an overflow or borrow pulse is generated and added to the normal gyroscope output thereby correcting for the accumulated errors caused by lock-in at zero dither velocity.