Scientific Technology, Inc.

Macronetics, Inc.

Paul Franklyn Key

Anthony Ross Lazzara

Robert I Beaver, Ii

George L Prodanovich

Michael J Adams

Don O Rawlings

P Santhanam

Susan L Hunt

A relay for electromagnetic radiation occurring in the optical portion of the electromagnetic spectrum has a receiver and a transmitter. The receiver senses a propagated beam of electromagnetic radiation providing a signal corresponding thereto which is shaped in an electrical circuit and provided as an excitation signal to the transmitter. An audio alignment feature is included providing audio indications for alignment of the receiver with the beam of electromagnetic radiation which is to be relayed. The transmitter is directionally adjustable to provide a relayed beam of electromagnetic radiation in a direction different from the received beam. The method includes aligning the receiver with the beam of electromagnetic radiation and converting the received electromagnetic radiation beam to a corresponding electrical signal in the receiver. The method further includes exciting the electromagnetic radiation transmitter with the corresponding electrical signal so that the range of the received electromagnetic radiation beam is extended to include the sum of the ranges of the received and transmitted beams.

Optical relay

Buffer storage apparatus is disclosed for use with a semiconductor wafer processing system having plurality of processing stations positioned along a conveyor structure and in which allowance must be made for different processing rates at different stations, the buffer storage apparatus including a first buffer storage station positioned between a first and a second processing station for temporarily holding wafers received from the first processing station and then conveying them to the second processing station, and a second buffer station positioned between the second processing station and the third processing station and including means for conveying a wafer received from the second processing station to the third processing station or for temporarily holding it.

Buffer storage apparatus for semiconductor wafer processing

A detector for marks having a color which contrasts with the mark background employs a solid state light source projecting a light beam having a plurality of wave length components corresponding to a plurality of colored light wave lengths. The light beam may approach the appearance of white light. A pulse modulated detector or sensor is used for receiving light reflected from colored surfaces having contrasting colored marks thereon, wherein high ambient light level rejection is obtained and high signal to noise ratio is provided in a sensor output. The sensor output is gated to eliminate between pulse noise, and the gated output is integrated to obtain a reference signal to which the gated pulse is continuously compared. An increase or decrease in signal is used to provide a light or dark mark indication respectively as a result of the comparison. Feedback from the output suppresses signal instability which may exist at the edges of the detection threshold. Since the comparator reference is self-adjusting to the background condition on the surface carrying the marks, the detection capability is dependent upon detector sweep speed relative to the surface.

Color mark detector

Color mark detector with pulsed source and synchronous demodulation

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San Martin, CA, United States of America

Paul Franklyn Key