[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 131 (Thursday, July 9, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37093-37094]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-18211]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology


Notice of Government Owned Inventions Available for Licensing

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology Commerce.

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 ownership interest in the inventions are 
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, 
Industrial Partnerships Program, 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: 94-020/030.
    Title: Miniature X-Ray Source.
    Abstract: The invention is jointly owned by the U.S. Government, as 
represented by the Secretary of Commerce, and the United States Navy. 
The United States Navy has transferred custody of their interest in the 
invention to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. A 
miniature x-ray source only a few millimeters across has applications 
as an x-ray source for a number of medical applications including non-
invasive intracavitary radiotherapy, diagnostic medical x-ray imaging, 
and intraoperative radiotherapy. Also, for example, an x-ray source 
according to the invention may be placed in the mouth of a patient and 
an x-ray film placed outside the mouth so as to obtain an image of the 
mandibular joint close to the ear. Other scientific applications for 
this tiny radiation source include small x-ray microscopes, 
fluorescence analysis absorptometry, radiography and x-ray tomography. 
The miniature x-ray source has a cathode which may comprise a gated 
array of field emission elements, an array of solid state miniature 
thermionic cathodes, or ferroelectric cathodes. Each of these cathodes 
can be manufactured using photolithographic and etching techniques 
commonly found in the semiconductor industry. The anode may be a foil, 
a thin film of metal deposited on the inside surface of a wall of the 
evacuated chamber or a self-supporting body of a metal that produces x-
rays in response to electron impacts.

    NIST Docket Number: 95-036US.
    Title: X-Ray Lithography Mask Inspection System.
    Abstract: The invention is jointly owned by the U.S. Government, as 
represented by the Secretary of Commerce, and Wisconsin Alumni Research 
Foundation. The invention uses an x-ray conversion microscope to form 
an enlarged image of the actual x-ray pattern that an x-ray mask would 
project onto a resist. Present x-ray mask inspection is done by 
electron microscopes where the image produced is representative of the 
interaction of high energy electrons with the features on the mask. The 
proposed technique would instead form images from the x-ray 
transmission of the mask, the quantity most relevant to the mask's 
performance in the x-ray lithography process.

    NIST Docket Number: 96-022US.
    Title: Methods For Machining Hard Materials Using Alcohols.
    Abstract: This invention is jointly owned by the U.S. Government, 
as represented by the Secretary of Commerce, and the University of 
Maryland. The present invention provides a method for machining hard 
materials using the machining fluids containing long chain alcohol in 
which the machining fluid is applied to a machining tool and then 
lubricates the machining of the workpiece by the

[[Page 37094]]

machining tool and protects the machining tool during machining. The 
method is particularly useful when used with machining tools having a 
Mohs hardness of at least 9 and is most particularly useful when used 
with diamond machining tools.

    NIST Docket Number: 97-014US.
    Title: Microroughness-Blind Optical Scattering Instrument.
    Abstract: A microroughness-blind optical scanner for detecting 
particulate contamination on bare silicon wafers focuses p-polarized 
light onto the surface of a sample. Scattered light is collected 
through independently rotatable polarizers by one or more collection 
systems uniformly distributed over a hemispherical shell centered over 
the sample. The polarizer associated with each collection system is 
rotated to cancel the corresponding Jones vector, thereby preventing 
detection of microroughness-scattered light, yielding higher 
sensitivity to particulate defects. The sample is supported on a 
positioning system permitting the beam to be scanned over the sample 
surface of interest.

    Dated: July 2, 1998.
Robert E. Hebner,
Acting Deputy Director.
[FR Doc. 98-18211 Filed 7-8-98; 8:45 am]
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