Patents by Inventor Robert R. Whitlock

Robert R. Whitlock has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7271389
    Abstract: A neutron detection device includes a neutron conversion layer in close proximity to an active semiconductor layer. The device is preferably based on the modification of existing conventional semiconductor memory devices. The device employs a conventional SRAM memory device that includes an SOI substrate. The SOI substrate includes an active semiconductor device layer, a base substrate and an insulating layer between the active semiconductor device layer and the base substrate. The base substrate layer is removed from the memory device by lapping, grinding and/or etching to expose the insulating layer. A neutron conversion layer is then formed on the insulating layer. The close proximity of the neutron conversion layer to the active semiconductor device layer yields substantial improvements in device sensitivity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2007
    Assignee: United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Robert A. August, Harold L. Hughes, Patrick J. McMarr, Robert R. Whitlock
  • Patent number: 6858372
    Abstract: A resist composition with enhanced X-ray and electron sensitivity includes a plurality of chemically inert nanoparticles dispersed throughout a base resist material. The nanoparticles have a higher atomic number than the base resist material and each of the nanoparticles is formed by a nanoparticle core, e.g., of a noble metal, coated with an organic capping layer or shell. The latter renders the core dispersible and chemically compatible with the resist material surrounding the nanoparticle. A method of making a resist composition with enhanced X-ray and electron sensitivity is to provide a resist material and disperse chemically inert nanoparticles throughout the resist. The nanoparticles have a higher atomic number than the resist and a have core/shell structure. A resist composition with enhanced X-ray and electron sensitivity can be made by having a nanoparticle core, with a higher atomic number than the resist, that is coated with an organic capping layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2005
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Robert R. Whitlock, Arthur Snow, Charles M. Dozier, Samuel G. Lambrakos
  • Publication number: 20040191669
    Abstract: A resist composition with enhanced X-ray and electron sensitivity includes a plurality of chemically inert nanoparticles dispersed throughout a base resist material. The nanoparticles have a higher atomic number than the base resist material and each of the nanoparticles is formed by a nanoparticle core, e.g., of a noble metal, coated with an organic capping layer or shell. The latter renders the core dispersible and chemically compatible with the resist material surrounding the nanoparticle. A method of making a resist composition with enhanced X-ray and electron sensitivity is to provide a resist material and disperse chemically inert nanoparticles throughout the resist. The nanoparticles have a higher atomic number than the resist and a have core/shell structure. A resist composition with enhanced X-ray and electron sensitivity can be made by having a nanoparticle core, with a higher atomic number than the resist, that is coated with an organic capping layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2003
    Publication date: September 30, 2004
    Inventors: Robert R. Whitlock, Arthur Snow, Charles M. Dozier, Samuel G. Lambrakos
  • Patent number: 6333968
    Abstract: The transmission cathode for X-ray generation is a device wherein an electrical current generated by a low voltage power supply produces an electron flow from the transmission cathode that is accelerated by a high voltage power supply towards an anode where X rays are emitted on impact. As the X rays are emitted, a primary beam passes through the cathode striking a sample placed outside the tube. The transmission cathode is X comprised of an electron emitter structure, preferably, an electron field emitter diode or thermionic emitter or a photoemitter or a nanotube or a pyroemitter or a piezoemitter, fabricated, preferably of elements of atomic numbers of 14 (silicon) or below, with electrically conductive components or conductive mechanical structural components, preferably, conductive silicon or diamond or aluminum or beryllium metal, and non-conductive electrical insulators or non-conductive mechanical structural components, preferably, diamond or silicon dioxide or boron carbide.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2001
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Robert R. Whitlock, Michael I. Bell, David V. Kerns, Sherra Kerns, Jimmy L. Davidson, Weng Poo Kang
  • Patent number: 5335258
    Abstract: In the submicrosecond, synchronizable x-ray source a high intensity pulsed laser is focused onto a negatively biased laser target, at high irradiance in a vacuum, producing high temperature plasma from which electrons are emitted. The emitted electrons are accelerated in a electric field formed by impressing a potential difference across a laser target-electron target gap. The positively biased electron target collects the emitted electrons, which upon impact with the electron target cause x-rays to be emitted synchronously with the incident laser pulse.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 1993
    Date of Patent: August 2, 1994
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventor: Robert R. Whitlock
  • Patent number: 4821302
    Abstract: A method and apparatus is disclosed for measuring the lattice parameters of single crystal material while that material is undergoing a transient shock wave. In a first embodiment, a first target is located at a preselected position in space with respect to a single crystal to be measured. A first laser beam pulse is transmitted through a beam block to the crystal to produce a transient shock wave in part of the crystal. A second laser beam pulse, synchronized to the first laser beam pulse, is transmitted to the first target to cause the first target to produce first and second sets of x-rays which are Bragg-diffracted from shocked and unshocked atomic planes of the crystal as the crystal is undergoing the shock wave. A first x-ray detector records the positions of the first and second sets of Bragg-diffracted x-rays to provide a first measurement of the lattice parameters of the crystal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 29, 1988
    Date of Patent: April 11, 1989
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Robert R. Whitlock, Justin S. Wark, Allan Hauer
  • Patent number: 4611140
    Abstract: A line imager comprising: a semiconductor body; a planar, transparent piezoelectric body having a main surface overlying and in proximity to the semiconductor body; wave propagation means for propagating acoustic waves on the main surface of the piezoelectric body to create traveling potential wells in the underlying semiconductor body; a traveling potential well path located in the semiconductor, the traveling potential well path beginning at the wave propogation means and extending straight away therefrom; semiconductor depletion means for depleting the semiconductor of majority charge carriers along the traveling potential well path, the depletion means located atop the piezoelectric body; a gate located on the semiconductor body and alongside and parallel to the traveling potential well path and adjoining the semiconductor depletion means; a plurality of sensor pixels for accumulating charge, the sensor pixels located in the semiconductor body, the pixels aligned next to each other and running parallel to
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 1985
    Date of Patent: September 9, 1986
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Robert R. Whitlock, Nicolas A. Papanicolaou
  • Patent number: 4600853
    Abstract: A device for the high speed recording of photon images and nonrepetitive electrical waveforms which comprises a waveform recorder wherein surface acoustic waves excited in a can be GaAs, not layered piezoelectric-insulator-semiconductor layered structure produce a traveling electric field in the semiconductor substrate. Charges stored in the traveling potential wells and representing the instantaenous amplitude of a waveform to be recorded are transferred at static wells when a gate is dropped. Because each successive traveling well represents a different time instant of the waveform, the different spatial locations of the static wells correspond to different times. The output signal from the static wells can be selectively delayed before application to a display oscilloscope to enable display of the waveform at a rate many times slower than the actual frequency of the signal waveform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 1985
    Date of Patent: July 15, 1986
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Robert R. Whitlock, Nicolas A. Papanicolaou
  • Patent number: 4597933
    Abstract: An apparatus for measuring the emissivity and opacity coefficients of a test plasma. The apparatus includes a target comprising a support structure of a carrier material with an asymmetrical sample of a test material disposed thereon, a driver for ionizing the test material into a test plasma and the carrier material into a carrier plasma, and spectrographs for measuring the intensity of photons traversing said test plasma. Embodiments including a separate photon source are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 1983
    Date of Patent: July 1, 1986
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Barrett H. Ripin, Robert R. Whitlock
  • Patent number: 4535023
    Abstract: A process for patterning a target for lasing at X-ray wavelengths from materials which cannot be readily shaped. A substrate of one material is placed in a gaseous atmosphere of another material, and the substrate is cooled below the freezing point of the other material so that a frozen layer of the other material condenses onto the substrate. Part of the frozen layer of the other material is masked, and the unmasked part of the frozen layer is vaporized so that the substrate of the one material is coated with the other material according to the pattern of the mask. The target made by the process is also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 1983
    Date of Patent: August 13, 1985
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventor: Robert R. Whitlock
  • Patent number: 4389590
    Abstract: A waveform recorder wherein surface acoustic waves excited in a piezoelecc-insulator-semiconductor layered structure produce a traveling electric field in the semiconductor substrate. Charges stored in the traveling potential wells and representing the instantaneous amplitude of a waveform to be recorded are transferred at high speed and density to different respective spatial locations. Because each successive well represents a different time instant of the waveform, the different spatial locations correspond to different times. The output signal from each of the locations can be selectively delayed before application to a display oscilloscope to enable display of the waveform at a rate many times slower than the actual frequency of the signal waveform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 1981
    Date of Patent: June 21, 1983
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventor: Robert R. Whitlock
  • Patent number: 4289057
    Abstract: Apparatus for composing and indicating finger pattern information for a musical stringed fingerboard instrument comprising a plurality of alignably repositionable first series of first indicia, each first series representing at least one course of said stringed fingerboard instrument, the locations of said first indicia forming a mapping image of allowable locations for fingering the respective courses of the stringed fingerboard instrument to sound musical tones.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 1979
    Date of Patent: September 15, 1981
    Inventor: Robert R. Whitlock
  • Patent number: 4175468
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for indicating finger pattern information for a musical stringed fingerboard instrument comprising at least one type of first indicia in a fingering pattern specified by pairs of coordinates representing allowable locations for fingering the stringed fingerboard instrument to sound musical tones of a chord or scale, and a repositionable string stop series for selecting a correlation of the ordinal number of at least one string stop of the stringed fingerboard instrument with the indicia of the fingering pattern.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 1976
    Date of Patent: November 27, 1979
    Inventor: Robert R. Whitlock