Patents
Thomas E. McEwan
Body Monitoring and Imaging Apparatus and Method
U.S. Patent 5,573,012
November 12, 1996
A monitor for detecting motion of heart, lung, vocal chord, or other organs based on the emission and detection of very-short-voltage pulses. A pulse-echo radar mode is employed repetitively to average a large number of reflected pulses. The voltage produced can modulate an audio oscillator to produce a tone that corresponds to the organ motion. The antenna can be formed of two flat copper foils, permitting the antenna to be housed in a flat housing. The monitor converts the detected voltage to an audible signal with both amplitude modulation and Doppler effect and uses a dual-time constant to reduce the effect of gross sensor-to-surface movement.
Conrad M. Yu and Wing C. Hui
Method for Making Circular Tubular Channels with Two Silicon Wafers
U.S. Patent 5,575,929
November 19, 1996
A method for fabricating semicircular microchannels in the surface of silicon wafers. A protective layer of boron nitride or silicon nitride is deposited on two wafers. Photolithography and plasma etching are used to form a narrow trench to the underlying silicon. An isotropic etch erodes the silicon through the trench in the protective layer to form a channel with a half-circular cross section. Wet etching removes the protective layer. The two silicon wafers are aligned and bonded together to complete the microcapillary.
Thomas E. McEwan
Narrow Field Electromagnetic Sensor System and Method
U.S. Patent 5,576,627
November 19, 1996
A sensor system that emits a sequence of electromagnetic signals in response to a transmit timing signal. The receiver samples the sequence of electromagnetic signals in response to receive a timing signal and generates a sampled signal. The timing circuit supplies the timing signals to the transmitter and receiver. The receiver timing signal causes the receiver to sample a portion of each electromagnetic signal that travels along a direct RF path between the transmitter and the receiver. The signal processor coupled to the output of the receiver and responsive to the sampled signal provides an indication of a characteristic, such as the presence of an object, in the narrow field.
Alexander R. Mitchell and Janis D. Young
Polypeptide Having an Amino Acid Replaced with N-Benzylglycine
U.S. Patent 5,527,882
June 18, 1996
A method of obtaining a potent agonist or antagonist polypeptide by the replacement of selected amino acids with synthetic achiral amino acids. The method is used when selected amino acids in a polypeptide are replaced with N-benzylglycine or N-cyclohexylmethylglycine or the ring-substituted derivatives thereof. The synthetic peptides are designed to have enhanced agonist or antagonist properties compared to the natural material, with a minimum of undesirable side effects.
Awards
The President's Early Career Award was presented in December to Christine Hartmann Siantar by the National Science and Technology Council. She was also one of six DOE employees to receive the DOE Energy Research Young Independent Scientist Award. Siantar is the principal investigator of PEREGRINE, an advanced modeling system that will better calculate radiation treatment plans, leading to higher cure rates in cancer patients.
Martyn Adamson was elected Fellow of the ASM International, (formerly the American Society for Metals) for pioneering and sustained developments of materials and material systems used in nuclear reactors and for the active promotion of international information exchange on the thermodynamics of nuclear materials. He is a senior staff member in the Chemistry and Materials Science Directorate and a group leader in Environmental Programs Directorate responsible for researching, developing, and demonstrating advanced systems for processing nuclear and hazardous wastes.
Marshall Blann was awarded an honorary doctorate in physics by the University of Frankfurt, Germany, and received the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Award, which funds a year of research at a German university.
Stuart Marshall was named a Fellow of the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics by the University of California for his work on the MACHO Project.
William Nellis and Arthur Mitchell will receive the American Physical Society's Shock Compression Award this summer for finding metallic hydrogen in their gas gun experiments and also for a number of other contributions to the field.
Back to March 1997