Briefs: Test & Measurement

Power Supply for Miniature Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer

A lightweight, low-power-consumption power supply has been developed to generate a combination of radio-frequency (RF) and dc voltages needed for the operation of a miniature quadrupole...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Absolute Position Encoders Using Pattern Recognition

Innovative optoelectronic encoders for measuring absolute, linear or angular position with super-high resolution have been invented. The new encoders rely on a combination of high-accuracy...

Briefs: Motion Control

Motion-Measuring Circuit for a Vibratory Capacitive Sensor

The figure illustrates an improved electronic circuit that generates a signal proportional to either the instantaneous vibrational velocity or the instantaneous position...

Briefs: Motion Control

Vibration-Regulating Circuit for a Mechanical Resonator

The figure illustrates an improved electronic circuit that excites constant-magnitude vibrations in an electrostatically actuated, capacitively sensed mechanical resonator. The circuit...

Briefs: Motion Control

Using Commercial-Grade Tb/Dy in Magnetostrictive Actuators

Single crystals of Tb-Dy alloys exhibit magnetostrictive strains approaching 1 percent and can generate forces sufficiently large to make them useful as actuators in cryogenic...

Briefs: Motion Control

Circuit Generates Rotation Signal From a Vibratory Gyroscope

This is the first of four articles that address various issues concerning the generation and utilization of electronic signals in the operation of micromachined planar vibratory...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Resonant Crackwires for In Situ Monitoring of Jet Engines

Fatigue cracks and plastic deformation of parts in jet aircraft engines could be detected, even during engine operation, by use of proposed in situ monitoring devices called "wireless...

Briefs: Motion Control

Q-Compensation Circuit for a Planar Vibratory Microgyroscope

Electronic circuitry has been devised to compensate for variations in the resonance quality factor (Q) of a planar vibratory microgyroscope like that described in the first of the...

Briefs: Physical Sciences

Computer Program Automates Thermal Analyses

A computer program (see figure) has been developed to serve as a time- and cost-effective means of automating thermal analyses of such hypersonic flight systems as the space shuttle orbiter, the...

Briefs: Physical Sciences

Automated Generation of Acoustic-Propagation Computer Codes

A computer program written within the Mathematica software system automatically generates FORTRAN computer codes that numerically simulate, with high accuracy, the acoustical...

Briefs: Physical Sciences

Rule-Based "Intelligent" Monitoring Software

Dryden Flight Research Center has developed a computer program that performs signal management for analysis in real time (SMART). This program, called "SMART," has been effectively used since 1991...

Briefs: Information Technology

Software for Analyzing Forth Programs

Forth Source Code Analysis Tool Set (FSCATS) is a computer program that provides a wide range of capabilities for documenting, analyzing, and reverse-engineering computer programs written in the Forth...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Cadmium Zinc Telluride Detectors for Imaging of Gamma Rays

Planar arrays of cadmium zinc telluride photodetectors with readout electronic circuitry have been developed for use as hard-x-ray and y-ray image sensors. When a coded,...

Briefs: Materials

Program Predicts Creep Lives of Ceramic Components

Ceramics Analysis and Reliability Evaluation of Structures/Creep (CARES/CREEP) is a computer program that predicts the creep lives of ceramic structural components. [CARES/CREEP should not...

Briefs: Physical Sciences

Vapor Corrosion Cell

The presence of corrosives in the Earth's atmosphere is of global concern. From acid rains that are destroying forests and disfiguring monuments like the Parthenon and the pyramids, to atmospheric pollutants that produce...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

RS-232-to-Infrared Transceiver

A transceiver has been developed to serve as a data-communication link between (1) the RS-232-standard serial communication port of a personal computer (PC) running the Windows 95 or Windows NT operating system...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

"Intelligent" Transceivers Would Predict Failures of Parts

Special-purpose, "intelligent," computer-controlled, highly miniaturized radio transceivers have been proposed for use in monitoring critical and/or valuable pieces of equipment....

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Networks Based on Stack-Tree Topology and a 1394 Bus

A method of designing fault-tolerant networks of computers and other electronic circuits has been conceived with a view toward minimizing costs by utilizing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)...