Abstract: The present description concerns a switch based on a phase-change material comprising: first, second, and third electrodes; a first region of said phase-change material coupling the first and second electrodes; and —a second region of said phase-change material coupling the second and third electrodes.

Abstract: A device for automatically imaging the capillary blood vessels of a living tissue likely to move, configured for selecting images of the sequence, called ‘sharp images’, arranged in chronological order of acquisition, shuffling the sharp images, for decorrelating temporally the sharp images, by arranging them in a shuffled order different from the chronological order, realigning spatially the sharp images arranged in the shuffled order, generating a projected image by projection of the pixels of the realigned sharp images, in a stack, the projected values of the pixels forming the projected image being extremal intensity values of the pixels of all the sharp images, the projection of the extremal of intensity values of the pixels rendering all the positions of all erythrocytes of all the sharp images in the projected image.

Abstract: Provided is a gas molecule sensor, characterized in that the sensing element is a polycrystalline tin oxide film having a thickness less than 1 ?m. The sensing element is produced by electrolytic deposit of a tin film on an insulating support in an electromechanical cell, where the anode is comprised of tin and the cathode is a conductive film applied on the surface of the insulating support at one of its ends, the two electrodes being separated by an electrolyte comprised of a tin salt solution, and by passing a constant current through said cell. The deposit step is followed by an oxidizing step.

Abstract: Provided is a process for metallizing an insulating substrate by depositing a uniform thin film of a metal on the insulating substrate. The process comprises placing the insulating substrate in an electrochemical cell which contains as the electrolyte a solution of a salt of the metal in a solvent, and which comprises an anode of the metal and a cathode in direct contact with the insulating substrate. A conducting film, which will constitute the cathode, is initially applied to one end of the substrate. The substrate is placed in the electrochemical cell in such a way that the surface to be metallized is vertical and the cathode is located in the upper part. A current is imposed on the electrochemical cell with an intensity such that it creates a current density of between 1 and 50 mA/cm2 in the horizontal section of the electrochemical cell level with the growth front of the film which is deposited.

Abstract: The invention concerns a reducing gas molecule sensor, characterised in that the sensing element is a polycrystalline tin oxide film having a thickness less than 1 &mgr;m. The sensing element is produced by electrolytic deposit of a tin film on an insulating support in an electrochemical cell whereof the anode consists of tin and the cathode is a conductive film applied on the surface of the insulating support at one of its ends, the two electrodes being separated by an electrolyte consisting of a tin salt solution, and by passing a current of constant intensity in said cell. The deposit step is followed by an oxidising step.