111results about How to "Maximize signal to noise ratio" patented technology

To locate / size contaminants at the surface of a dielectric or semiconductor material, a P-polarized beam of light from a monochromatic solid-state source is disposed specifically at Brewster's angle and focused to form an illuminated quasi-elliptical spot on the surface that produces effectively no reflected or scattered light from the surface. The spot is scanned over the entire surface so as to assure multiple passes of any contaminant through the spot. On each pass through the spot a contaminant will produce scattered light. A novel high numerical aperture reflective or refractive system is disposed above the surface to always view the spot and to collect / redirect the bulk of the contaminant scattered light to a detector. Illumination at Brewster's angle combined with the high numerical aperture scattered light collector / redirector maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio from the detector. These core components are packaged with support subsystems as a uniquely compact and portable apparatus.

Systems and methods for inspecting a wafer are provided. One system includes an illumination subsystem configured to illuminate the wafer; a collection subsystem configured to collect light scattered from the wafer and to preserve the polarization of the scattered light; an optical element configured to separate the scattered light collected in different segments of the collection numerical aperture of the collection subsystem, where the optical element is positioned at a Fourier plane or a conjugate of the Fourier plane of the collection subsystem; a polarizing element configured to separate the scattered light in one of the different segments into different portions of the scattered light based on polarization; and a detector configured to detect one of the different portions of the scattered light and to generate output responsive to the detected light, which is used to detect defects on the wafer.

A method includes broadcasting, at a transmitter, messages comprising antenna configuration, antenna spacing and a number of antenna of the transmitter and reference signals; generating, at a receiver, a codebook comprising a plurality of antenna beams based on the broadcasted messages; receiving, at the receiver, the broadcasted reference signals; selecting, at the receiver, an antenna beam among the plurality of antenna beams within the codebook in dependence upon a predetermined performance criteria of a data communication system and in dependence upon the broadcasted reference signals; feedbacking to the transmitter, at the receiver, information comprising the antenna beam selected by the receiver; optimizing, at the transmitter, a beamforming process by utilizing the feedback information from the receiver; transmitting, at the transmitter, data signals by utilizing the optimized beamforming process; and receiving and processing, at the receiver, the data signals in dependence upon the selected antenna beams within the codebook.

A system for sorting articles includes a detector system having a plurality of narrow bandwidth sources of electromagnetic energy sequentially illuminating articles passing through the detector system, the detector system further including a collector for collecting electromagnetic energy reflected from the articles; a deflector for deflecting selected articles toward an alternative destination; and a control system, operably connected to the collector and the deflector, for actuating the deflector in response to a sensed parameter of the electromagnetic energy collected in the collector.

A Radio Frequency (RF) receiver includes a low noise amplifier (LNA) and a mixer coupled to the output of the LNA. The gain of the LNA is adjusted to maximize signal-to-noise ratio of the mixer and to force the mixer to operate well within its linear region when an intermodulation interference component is present. The RF receiver includes a first received signal strength indicator (RSSI_A) coupled to the output of the mixer that measures the strength of the wideband signal at that point. A second received signal strength indicator (RSSI_B) couples after the BPF and measures the strength of the narrowband signal. The LNA gain is set based upon these signal strengths. LNA gain is determined during a guard period preceding an intended time slot of a current frame and during a guard period following an intended time slot of a prior frame. The lesser of these two LNA gains is used for the intended time slot of the current frame.

In an image processing system, the imager gain and the exposure time are adjusted based on a predefined stepping sequence using a stepping table designed to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio in the image. This is achieved by providing a stepping sequence with each step having the largest suitable integration time (exposure) and an appropriate amplifier and digital gain setting, while achieving an equal relative percentage change in image brightness between adjacent sequence steps. The size of the executed AE steps is proportional to the distance between a current image luminance and the target luminance. This is achieved by the capability to skip one or more steps in the stepping sequence, if appropriate, for each relevant executed step, with the number of skipped steps, if any, being proportional to the magnitude of the deviation from the target brightness.

An interference-canceling receiver processes coded, multiple-access, spread-spectrum transmissions that propagate through frequency-selective communication channels from multiple transmit antennas to multiple receive antennas in a closed-loop transmit-diversity channel. The receiver provides for repeated use of symbol-estimate weighting, subtractive cancellation with a stabilizing step-size, and mixed-decision symbol estimation. Receivers may be designed, adapted, and implemented explicitly in software or programmed hardware, or implicitly in standard Rake-based hardware, either within a Rake receiver at the finger level or outside the Rake at the user or subchannel symbol level. The receiver may be employed in user equipment on the forward link or in a base station on the reverse link.