Abstract:
A bolometer type focal plane is made up of a plurality of silicon sensors. Within each sensor, interconnection between co-planar stages is provided by elongated “I” beam type bridge members having a generally rectangular cross-section including unequal wider (height) and narrower (width) dimensions, and wherein the bridge members are oriented such that the narrower width dimension is in the direction of the common plane and the wider height dimension is perpendicular to the common plane. A sensor with these bridges accommodates stress/strain by rotation while preventing out-of-plane deflection and deformation.
Abstract:
A bolometer type focal plane is made up of a plurality of silicon sensors. Within each sensor, interconnection between co-planar stages is provided by elongated “I” beam type bridge members having a generally rectangular cross-section including unequal wider (height) and narrower (width) dimensions, and wherein the bridge members are oriented such that the narrower width dimension is in the direction of the common plane and the wider height dimension is perpendicular to the common plane. A sensor with these bridges accommodates stress/strain by rotation while preventing out-of-plane deflection and deformation.
Abstract:
An improved MOS photodetector having polysilicon gate material which is made more transparent to visible light by the addition of up to 50% carbon, and preferably about 10% carbon. The surfaces of the polysilicon-carbon gates are oxidized to form a silicon dioxide dielectric layer, thus eliminating the need to deposit a separate dielectric layer for isolation of adjacent gates in an overlapping gate array. The elimination of a separate dielectric layer permits all gates to be formed directly on the substrate dielectric layer, thus providing a uniform drive voltage requirement across the array.
Abstract:
A solid state gas pressure sensor has a resistor of polysilicon deposited upon a dielectric substrate which electrically isolates and thermally prevents heat transfer to other devices thereon. A constant voltage is applied to the resistor. Depending upon the gas pressure over the sensor, a given current will be output once temperature equilibrium is established. A change in the gas pressure changes the output current of the resistor. The output current indicative of pressure is temperature corrected.
Abstract:
A focal plane staring sensor is provided that includes an M×N sensor, where M is a number of rows of sensor pixels in the sensor and N is a number of columns of sensor pixels in the sensor, where M and N are integers greater than one. A control circuit samples a sensor pixel value for each sensor pixel of the M×N sensor at a plurality of different integration times corresponding to an amount of time that a photonic charge can be acquired in each sensor pixel of the M×N sensor, wherein the control circuit selects one sample from a set of samples to generate a scaled value to facilitate an equalization of a signal to noise ratio between the sensor pixels.
Abstract:
A CCD structure including high resolution pixels. The gate electrodes of the CCD are separated by gaps in the order of 0.6 .mu.m which are made to look smaller than their physical size by the use of dielectric filler material in the gaps. The dielectric filler material has a relatively high dielectric constant which is relatively large for the clock frequencies utilized but may be relatively low for optical frequencies. The dielectric constant of the dielectric filler material is typically greater than 20 and is selected from materials such as tantalum oxide, zirconium oxide, barium titanate and barium strontium titanate.
Abstract:
A CCD gate definition process utilizing a thin film layer in a double masking process to form a first and second oxide layer over the polysilicon gate material to provide a profiled and tapered oxide layer over the gate without any re-entrant oxide steps.
Abstract:
The present invention provides a spectral filter for an optical sensor. The spectral filter includes a substrate having a focus region and a defocus region, a panchromatic filter region disposed on the focus region of the substrate and a multi-spectral filter region disposed on the defocus region of the substrate. The panchromatic filter region includes a plurality of panchromatic pixels, while the multi-spectral filter region includes a plurality of multi-spectral pixels. Each of the multi-spectral pixels includes a plurality of color pixels.
Abstract:
An alphanumeric character card game forming sentences or phrases known as instant messages whereby letter and number cards are combined as traditional English words, abbreviations, numbers as words, acronyms, or phonetic or representative combinations corresponding to a word. Phonetic and representative combinations corresponding to a word are known as instant message words. Points are determined by adding the number of traditional words, abbreviations, numbers used as words, acronyms, instant message words and total alphanumeric character cards used in the sentence or phrase. A bonus point is added to a player's point total for each instant message word used in the sentence or phrase. The first player to reach a predetermined point total is the winner. Game emphasis is placed on using instant message words, which provide numerous options for forming sentences or phrases with a minimum number of playing cards. Only instant message words listed in the game dictionary are permitted.
Abstract:
Laser ranging in a volume of interest is accomplished using a laser transmitter, a planar matrix of photosensitive optical elements, a memory, a display, and a mechanical or electronic shutter. The laser transmitter directs a pulsed laser towards the volume of interest. The mechanical or electronic shutter shields all light from the planar matrix of photosensitive optical elements except during an interval occuring between times corresponding to the minimum range and maximum range of this laser rangefinder. The photosensitive optical elements each produce an output signal to the memory when receiving target echo return signals from objects in the volume of interest. When the memory is a plurality of charge coupled device storage registers integral to the optical elements, then the receiver array has its own internal memory, which may be accessed to indicate the range values of objects within the volume of interest.