146results about How to "Maximize sensitivity" patented technology

Systems and methods for joint replacement are provided. The systems and methods include a surgical orientation device and at least one orthopedic fixture. The surgical orientation device and orthopedic fixtures can be used to locate the orientation of an axis in the body, to adjust an orientation of a cutting plane or planes along a bony surface, to distract a joint, or to otherwise assist in an orthopedic procedure or procedures.

Systems and methods for joint replacement are provided. The systems and methods include a surgical orientation device and at least one orthopedic fixture. The surgical orientation device and orthopedic fixtures can be used to locate the orientation of an axis in the body, to adjust an orientation of a cutting plane or planes along a bony surface, to distract a joint, or to otherwise assist in an orthopedic procedure or procedures.

A method for monitoring fabrication of an integrated circuit (IC) on a semiconductor wafer includes generating a product design profile (PDP) using an electronic design automation (EDA) tool, the PDP comprising an indication of a site in at least one layer of the IC that is susceptible to a process fault. Upon fabricating at least one layer of the IC on the wafer, a process monitoring tool is applied to perform a measurement at the site in at least one layer responsively to the PDP.

Systems and methods for joint replacement are provided. The systems and methods include a surgical orientation device and at least one orthopedic fixture. The surgical orientation device and orthopedic fixtures can be used to locate the orientation of an axis in the body, to adjust an orientation of a cutting plane or planes along a bony surface, to distract a joint, or to otherwise assist in an orthopedic procedure or procedures.

A method and apparatus for determining an angioplasty induced blood flow changes, wherein the apparatus includes the catheter having a port for introducing a blood property change in a downstream sensor. The downstream sensor and the catheter are configured to space the sensor from an adjacent vessel wall so as to minimize effects of the vessel wall during sensing of the blood property change.

The present invention is directed generally to a nebulizer for the formation of micro-droplets from liquid medicaments for respiratory patient treatment, and more specifically, to a baffled nebulizer wherein a static baffle used to form an atomized medicament is proximal to a shied which responds to patient respiration force to oscillate from an aerosol flow occluding position to an aerosol flow open position. During inhalation, the shield moves into a first registration format to allow passage of the atomized medicament (nebula) to the patient. During exhalation / non-use, a biasing pressure maintains said shield in a second registration format such that the nebula is retarded from passing to the patient and is coalesced into macro-droplets which return to a supply reservoir for re-atomization. The present nebulizer design is particularly adaptable for controlling atomization in response to patient respiratory forces exceeding a defined threshold; allowing for opportunity to control inhalation airflow and enhanced therapy regimes.

A method for monitoring fabrication of an integrated circuit (IC) on a semiconductor wafer includes generating a product design profile (PDP) using an electronic design automation (EDA) tool, the PDP comprising an indication of a site in at least one layer of the IC that is susceptible to a process fault. Upon fabricating at least one layer of the IC on the wafer, a process monitoring tool is applied to perform a measurement at the site in at least one layer responsively to the PDP.

A method of surgically positioning an electrode array at a desired implantation location relative to a nerve. A temporary probe electrode is temporarily positioned adjacent to the nerve and at a location which is caudorostrally separate to the desired implantation location of the electrode array. The implanted position of the probe electrode is temporarily fixed relative to the nerve. During implantation of the electrode array, electrical stimuli are applied from one of the temporarily fixed probe electrode and the electrode array, to evoke compound action potentials on the nerve. Compound action potentials evoked by the stimuli are sensed from at least one electrode of the other of the temporarily fixed probe electrode and the electrode array. From the sensed compound action potentials a position of the electrode array relative to the nerve is determined.

An optical coherence tomography (OCT) apparatus includes an optical source, an interferometer generating an object beam and a reference beam, a transverse scanner for scanning an object with said object beam, and a processor for generating an OCT image from an OCT signal returned by said interferometer. At least the optical source, the interferometer, and the scanner are mounted on a common translation stage displaceable towards and away from said object. A dynamic focus solution is provided when the scanner and a folded object path are placed on the translation stage.

The present invention provides a sensor, such as a biosensor, comprising at least one self-assembled monolayer (SAM) comprising analyte-sensitive groups, such as glucose-sensitive groups, attached to the surface of the outer wall of a carbon nanotube (CNT), such as a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT), by terminal groups, which bind to a thin layer of a metal or metal oxide, which has been deposited on the surface of the outer wall of the nanotube.

A sensor system for viewing the light energy of a scene has an imaging detector which converts incident light energy into an electrical signal. Two colors are separately imaged by the detector in two imaging regions. The imaging system for each color includes a color filter positioned between the scene and the respective region of the detector, an optical train that focuses filtered color scene energy, and an optical fiber bundle having an input end that receives the respective color scene energy from the optical train and an output end that directs the color scene energy onto the respective region of the detector using a nonlinear mapping. The optical fiber bundle is formed of a plurality of optical fibers wherein each of the optical fibers has an input shape and size at its input end and an output shape and size at its output end. The output shape and size are different from the input shape and size. The sensor system further includes an electronic device operable to read the electrical signal of the detector, and image-processing electronics.

An electrophotographic imaging member with a charge generation section having separate layers of benzimidazole perylene photoconductive pigment and hydroxygallium ptalocyanine photoconductive pigment.

A sensor includes at least two microsensor chips in a housing. The chips may be arranged as (i) an absolute thermal conductivity sensor by exposing one chip to a sample fluid and the other chip to a sealed reference fluid, (ii) a differential thermal conductivity sensor by exposing the two chips to a sample fluid before and after it is modified, respectively, (iii) a one-axis rotation sensor by exposing both chips, positioned at an angle of 180° relative to one another, to a rotational flow in a toroidal chamber, (iv) a two or three axis rotation sensor by placing the two chips or three such chips on two or three orthogonal faces of a cube, (v) a one axis orientation / tilt / acceleration sensor by exposing the two chips to a fluid in a sealed toroidal chamber and by mounting the chips at an angle of substantially 90° relative to one another, (vi) a two axis orientation / tilt / acceleration sensor by placing the two chips at an angle of 90° relative to one another in a fluid filled chamber substantially without inertial flow, and (vii) a combined tilt / rotation sensor based on above (iii) by periodically adding and subtracting the signals from the two chips.

In an actively illuminated imaging system, illumination of a segmented scene is synchronized with an image sensing period. A scene is segmented into a plurality of scene portions utilizing a segmented lens. In an aspect, a first scene portion is illuminated when an imager is actively collecting photogenerated charge from the first scene portion, and a second scene portion is illuminated when an imager is actively collecting photogenerated charge from the second scene portion. The sensitivity of an image sensor is maximized, while simultaneously minimizing the amount of light that must be supplied to illuminate a scene. An irradiance pattern is varied allowing a more uniform distribution of light. Bands of varying wavelength, polarization, and light intensity may be variously applied to illuminate individual scene segments, as needed to enhance an identification of an object in the scene. The present invention is particularly useful with high frame rate imaging systems.

An optical coherence tomography (OCT) apparatus includes an optical source, an interferometer generating an object beam and a reference beam, a transverse scanner for scanning an object with said object beam, and a processor for generating an OCT image from an OCT signal returned by said interferometer. At least the optical source, the interferometer, and the scanner are mounted on a common translation stage displaceable towards and away from said object. A dynamic focus solution is provided when the scanner and a folded object path are placed on the translation stage.

A control system and apparatus for use with laser ionization is provided. In another aspect of the present invention, the apparatus includes a laser, pulse shaper, detection device and control system. A further aspect of the present invention employs a femtosecond laser and a mass spectrometer. In yet other aspects of the present invention, the control system and apparatus are used in MALDI, chemical bond cleaving, protein sequencing, photodynamic therapy, optical coherence tomography and optical communications processes.

A method for inspecting objects such as semiconductor wafers. A staging platform and an optical platform are arranged so that the object may be staged and its surface scanned by optical equipment situated on the optical platform. During the scanning process, the surface is illuminated with light of a plurality of wavelengths, each strobed at a predetermined rate so that multiple images may be collected using time and frequency multiplexing. The multiple images are stored in a database for analysis, which includes processing selected ones of the multiple images according to one or more algorithms. The defect-detection algorithms used for each object are determined by referenced to a predetermined or calculated defect detection protocol, then a defect mask is created for each pixel in the images that is suspected to be defective. The defect mask is then compared to threshold parameters to determine which if any of the suspected defects should be reported.

A high separation efficacy, compact, bulk oil separator oriented horizontally and used with a scroll-type oil-lubricated compressor unit adapted to compressing helium. The horizontal bulk oil separator contains an integral oil reservoir and removes more than 99.9% of the oil from the helium that exits. The bulk oil separator contains successive chambers where oil separates from the gas by impingement.

A method of improving energy determination of a Gamma event which interacts with a segmented scintillation detector, the method comprising: identifying radiation events detected by a detector that are likely not to have deposited their full energy in the detector, based only on characteristics of said detected events; and treating the identified radiation events differently from other radiation events that are likely to have deposited their full energy in the detector.

An optical coherence tomography (OCT) apparatus includes an optical source, an interferometer generating an object beam and a reference beam, a transverse scanner for scanning an object with said object beam, and a processor for generating an OCT image from an OCT signal returned by said interferometer. At least the optical source, the interferometer, and the scanner are mounted on a common translation stage displaceable towards and away from said object. A dynamic focus solution is provided when the scanner and a folded object path are placed on the translation stage.

The present invention relates to a magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) method, specifically to a magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging method with up to three spatial dimensions and one spectral dimension. Interleaving dynamically switched magnetic field gradients into the spectroscopic encoding scheme enables multi-region shimming in a single shot to compensate the spatially varying spectral line broadening resulting from local magnetic field gradients. The method also employs sparse spectral sampling with controlled spectral aliasing and nonlinear sampling density to maximize encoding speed, data sampling efficiency and sensitivity.

The present invention provides a sensor, such as a biosensor, comprising at least one self-assembled monolayer (SAM) comprising analyte-sensitive groups, such as glucose-sensitive groups, attached to the surface of the outer wall of a carbon nanotube (CNT), such as a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT), by terminal groups, which bind to a thin layer of a metal or metal oxide, which has been deposited on the surface of the outer wall of the nanotube.

In an actively illuminated imaging system, illumination of a segmented scene is synchronized with an image sensing period. A scene is segmented into a plurality of scene portions utilizing a segmented lens. In an aspect, a first scene portion is illuminated when an imager is actively collecting photogenerated charge from the first scene portion, and a second scene portion is illuminated when an imager is actively collecting photogenerated charge from the second scene portion. The sensitivity of an image sensor is maximized, while simultaneously minimizing the amount of light that must be supplied to illuminate a scene. An irradiance pattern is varied allowing a more uniform distribution of light. Bands of varying wavelength, polarization, and light intensity may be variously applied to illuminate individual scene segments, as needed to enhance an identification of an object in the scene. The present invention is particularly useful with high frame rate imaging systems.

Porosity causing gas-based defects are detected, located, identified, and / or characterized by the use of defect information generated from gas flow data corresponding to gas flow characteristics measured by one or more sensors on a composite part processing piece such as a mould or membrane used during a composite manufacturing process. The defect information is generated using techniques including one or more of profiling the gas flow data, fingerprinting, line leak detection, analytical triangulation.

A method of surgically positioning an electrode array at a desired implantation location relative to a nerve. A temporary probe electrode is temporarily positioned adjacent to the nerve and at a location which is caudorostrally separate to the desired implantation location of the electrode array. The implanted position of the probe electrode is temporarily fixed relative to the nerve. During implantation of the electrode array, electrical stimuli are applied from one of the temporarily fixed probe electrode and the electrode array, to evoke compound action potentials on the nerve. Compound action potentials evoked by the stimuli are sensed from at least one electrode of the other of the temporarily fixed probe electrode and the electrode array. From the sensed compound action potentials a position of the electrode array relative to the nerve is determined.

There is described a method, a sensing device as well as an optical pointing device including a sensing device for comparing light intensity between pixels. Light intensity between pairs of pixels of a photodetector array is compared as follows. First and second output signals generated by the photosensitive elements of a first and a second pixel of each pair are integrated over time to respectively provide first and second integrated signals. Integration of the first output signal is interrupted at the end of a first time period and the resulting first integrated signal is stored. Integration of the second output signal is continued until the end of a second time period and the resulting second integrated signal is compared to the stored first integrated signal to provide an output signal representative of an edge condition between the first and second pixel.

A magnetic field sensor relies on variations in permeability of magnetic material to detect an external field. An exemplary magnetic field sensor includes a lengthwise extending sensing element, and a coil wound about the sensing element. The sensing element may be formed as a number of geometrically and magnetically similar or identical conductive cores that are ferromagnetic, driven by an AC magnetic field. The multiple conductive cores are connected in parallel. An external magnetic field changes the magnetic characteristics of the sensing element and induces a change in electric potential of the induction coil. The sensor output is proportional to the number of conductive cores.

A nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) sample tube is made of a polymeric material instead of glass. Such tubes are thinner than glass tubes, thus increasing the internal volume and sample size. Such tubes are also more closely matched to the magnetic susceptibility of specific solvents. Such tubes have greater mechanical stability, thus leading to less tube breakage during NMR processing. Such tubes also lend themselves to various concentric tubal arrangements which permit separation and mixing of samples to minimize subtraction artifacts in interacting systems.