Abstract:
An embodiment of the invention generally relates to a method of converting a commercial off-the-shelf electrical lead to a rugged off-the-shelf electrical lead by laser machining a portion of the electrical lead. The method includes ablating material from the electrical lead of the commercial off-the-shelf component to reduce the moment of inertia or increase the flexibility of the electrical lead.
Abstract:
A method for aligning a plurality of sub-apertures of a multiple-aperture imaging system including, but not limited to, identifying one sub-aperture to serve as a reference sub-aperture, actuating the reference sub-aperture in a series of piston steps of a known amount, collecting data relating to each image of a plurality of images of a point object, each image corresponding to a respective piston step, compiling the data into a three-dimensional data cube, detecting a plurality of fringes positioned within the three-dimensional data cube, determining the relative location of each sub-aperture of the plurality of sub-apertures based on a location of each fringe of the plurality of fringes within the three-dimensional data cube, and actuating a piston associated with at least one sub-aperture based, at least in part, on the relative location to move the at least one sub-aperture into alignment with another sub-aperture and repeating with each remaining sub-aperture until all sub-apertures are at substantially the same piston height.
Abstract:
A cable includes an outer jacket of polyethylene surrounding a plurality of conductive wires. Each one of the plurality of insulated conductive wires comprises a conductive core and an insulating layer surrounding the conductive core, the insulating layer being made of cross-linked polyethylene.
Abstract:
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for the encryption and decryption of optically transmitted data, and more particularly to the encryption and decryption of optical data transmitted and received using only optical components. Because only optical components are used, the encryption and decryption is independent of the data rate of the optical signal. The apparatus may include an encryption device that operates by receiving and combining both an unencrypted optical signal as well as a delayed optical signal that is based on the unencrypted optical signal. An optical delay may be configured in a number of different ways and may be used for delaying the unencrypted optical signal. The apparatus may further include a decryption device that receives and combines an encrypted optical signal as well as a delayed optical signal that is based on the encrypted optical signal. An optical delay may be configured in a number of different ways and may be used for delaying the encrypted optical signal. To properly work together, the apparatus and method require that the optical delay on the encryption side perfectly match the optical delay on the decryption side in both the length of delay and arrangement.
Abstract:
A system method for manufacturing leads is provided. The method includes providing a conductive sheet, shaping the conductive sheet into at least two opposing longitudinal strips and a plurality of interposing strips, masking lateral sides and a center of the plurality of interposing strips, covering the exposed surface with a conductor and severing the conductive sheet at least along center mask. The plurality of interposing strips are preferably flexible and configurable into desired shapes for potential future attachment to an integrated circuit.
Abstract:
A method is provided for connecting an integrated circuit to a surface of a printed wiring board. The integrated circuit includes lead contacts and leadless contact pads. A first solder paste is applied to the leadless contact pads of the integrated circuit, and preformed conductive pieces are placed on the first solder paste. The preformed conductive pieces are slugs that have, for example, a cylindrical shape or a rectangular cross-section. The preformed conductive pieces are heated and brought into electrical contact with the leadless contact pads. The lead contacts are formed into gull wings. The bases of the preformed conductive pieces are generally aligned in a plane, and the bases of the gull wings are substantially coplanar with the plane such that they collectively generally define a contact plane. A second solder paste is applied on the surface, and the bases of the gull wings and the preformed conductive pieces are soldered to the second solder paste on the surface so that the integrated circuit is in electrical contact with the surface through both the leadless contact pads and the lead contacts. The preformed conductive pieces comprise a conductive material (e.g., a copper alloy) that has a higher melting point than the first solder paste and the second solder paste such that the preformed conductive pieces do not melt during heating or soldering that is described above.
Abstract:
A method for preparing an integrated circuit for connection to a surface, the integrated circuit including lead contacts and leadless contacts, is provided. The method includes providing the integrated circuit, applying a first solder paste to the leadless contacts, forming solder balls on the applied solder paste, heating the solder balls, thereby removing at least a portion of the first solder paste and bringing the solder balls into electrical contact with the leadless contacts, the base of the solder balls being generally aligned in a plane, and bending the lead contacts into gull wings, with the base of the gull wings being substantially coplanar with the plane. The base of the gull wings and the base of the at least one of the solder balls collectively generally define a contact plane for potential future contact with the surface.
Abstract:
A method of and architecture for controlling board elements in an orthogonal system architecture is provided. The method and architecture preferably utilize an internal bus architecture between control boards, such that a first control board can access board elements in its stack via I/O on a second control board and the second control board can access board elements in its stack via I/O on the first control board. Most preferably the internal bus architecture is a HyperTransport bus architecture.
Abstract:
A digital demodulation method for a quadrature amplitude modulated signal uses a phase locked loop to generate a local carrier signal. The phase locked loop uses a feedback signal derived from one or more demodulated signals of interest. The loop has a filter characteristic with a stop band within the information bandwidth(s) of the information signal(s). The preferred method generates an error signal from DC components of in-phase and quadrature-phase baseband signals. DC components are preferably isolated using a low-latency, AC rejection filter.
Abstract:
The present invention relates to a system and method for problem solving using intelligent agents. The intelligent agents may be embodied as processor-readable software code stored on a processor-readable medium. The intelligent agents may include a brain agent to parse the input and direct the parsed input query to other intelligent agents within the system. The apparatus and method may use, for example, a personality agent, a language agent, a knowledge agent, a mood agent, a visual agent, sound agent, a tactile agent, and a smell/taste agent and various connectors to external data sources or other intelligent systems to interpret questions and provide responses back to the user. The apparatus and method may further parse questions in a conceptual manner. The apparatus and method may further optimize its system performance by evolving with and reacting to specific user interactions. Thus, the present invention may be configured to receive a human question and to output a human answer.