[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 69 (Tuesday, April 10, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Page 18613]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-8767]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology


Government Owned Inventions Available for Licensing

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of Government Owned Inventions Available for Licensing.

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SUMMARY: The inventions listed below are owned in whole or in part by 
the U.S. Government, as represented by the Department of Commerce. The 
Department of Commerce's interest in the inventions is available for 
licensing in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 207 and 37 CFR part 404 to 
achieve expeditious commercialization of results of federally funded 
research and development.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Technical and licensing information on 
these inventions may be obtained by writing to: National Institute of 
Standards and Technology, Office of Technology Partnerships, Building 
820, Room 213, Gaithersburg, MD 20899; Fax 301-869-2751. Any request 
for information should include the NIST Docket No. and Title for the 
relevant invention as indicated below.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NIST may enter into a Cooperative Research 
and Development Agreement (``CRADA'') with the licensee to perform 
further research on the inventions for purposes of commercialization. 
The inventions available for licensing are:
    NIST Docket Number: 98-029US.
    Title: Method And Apparatus For Bias And Readout Of Bolometers 
Operated On A Hysteretic Metal-Insulator Transition.
    Abstract: This invention consists of a bias and readout scheme for 
resistive bolometers. It is chiefly intended for use with bolometer 
materials which exhibit a phase transition that is hysteretic. The most 
obvious example of such a bolometer material is vanadium dioxide, which 
has a metal-semiconductor phase transition at 68 degrees Celsius and a 
hysteresis of typically 5 degrees Celsius depending on material 
preparation. The existence of hysteresis precludes the use of a 
conventional DC bias or a conventional pulsed bias in a bolometer 
operated on the phase transition. In the technique we are disclosing, 
the bias consists of an AC current. (This is for phase transitions in 
which the resistance decreases with increasing temperature. For phase 
transitions in which the resistance increases with temperature, an AC 
voltage bias would be used.) The waveform of the AC bias consists of a 
short ``reset'' segment, in which the peak current is high enough to 
bring the bolometer completely into its metallic state, followed by a 
longer ``data'' segment, in which the bias current and bias power 
monotonically decrease, so as to sweep the bolometer's physical 
temperature downward across the phase transition. The frequency of the 
AC bias is determined by the condition that the slew rate in bias power 
during the data segment must always exceed the slew rate in signal 
power, for all signals of interest. The signal is read out by averaging 
the bolometer voltage over a time window lying entirely within the data 
segment. With this bias and readout scheme, the full slope of the 
bolometer R(T) characteristic is reflected in the output from small 
signals, which would not be the case for a conventional DC or pulsed 
bias scheme. Since the full slope of the R(T) characteristic is 
accessible, the bolometer can operate in the extreme electrothermal 
feedback regime, which provides major improvements in speed 1/f-noise, 
and sensitivity.

    Dated: April 3, 2001.
Karen H. Brown,
Acting Director.
[FR Doc. 01-8767 Filed 4-9-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-13-M