| PAUL SCHERRER INSTITUT Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
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| 20120056109 | METHOD FOR EVALUATING RADIATION MODEL DATA IN PARTICLE BEAM RADIATION APPLICATIONS - A method for evaluating radiation model data in particle beam radiation applications, in particular in proton beam therapy of a determined target volume of malignant tissue within a patient, includes the following steps: a) gaining diagnostic data for a determined target volume to be irradiated; b) calculating a particle range in the predetermined target volume based on the diagnostic data for the determined target volume; c) designing a radiation model with particle beam characteristics based on the calculated particle range and optionally on a calculated dose depth distribution; d) applying a single pencil beam shot to the determined target volume at an elevated beam energy as compared to the particle beam characteristics of the radiation model; e) measuring the beam range of the single pencil beam shot downstream of the determined target volume; and f) comparing the measured beam range to a reference beam range calculated on the basis of the radiation model. | 03-08-2012 |
| 20120041679 | LOW DOSE SINGLE STEP GRATING BASED X-RAY PHASE CONTRAST IMAGING - Phase sensitive X-ray imaging methods provide substantially increased contrast over conventional absorption based imaging, and therefore new and otherwise inaccessible information. The use of gratings as optical elements in hard X-ray phase imaging overcomes some of the problems impairing the wider use of phase contrast in X-ray radiography and tomography. To separate the phase information from other contributions detected with a grating interferometer, a phase-stepping approach has been considered, which implies the acquisition of multiple radiographic projections. Here, an innovative, highly sensitive X-ray tomographic phase contrast imaging approach is presented based on grating interferometry, which extracts the phase contrast signal without the need of phase stepping. Compared to the existing phase step approach, the main advantage of this new method dubbed “reverse projection” is the significantly reduced delivered dose, without degradation of the image quality. | 02-16-2012 |
| 20120019217 | CONTROL CONCEPT FOR A DIGITALLY CONTROLLED MAGNETIC SUPPLY DEVICE - A method and a device control a magnetic supply device. The method includes the steps of executing a base structure of a control as a two-loop control having a voltage control loop for a magnetic voltage and a current control loop for the magnetic current, wherein the two control loops or circuits are preferably combined into one controller. The voltage control loop is executed as a status controller, wherein the return parameters for the status controller are adaptively adjusted as necessary to the behavior of a current converter, an output filter and a load. The behavior of the current converter, the output filter and the load are modeled by an observer (e.g. Luenberger observer, Kaiman filter) and the observer adapted to the effective behavior of the current converter, the output filter and the load is tracked. Finally, the current control loop is implemented as an adaptive PI controller. | 01-26-2012 |
| 20110294035 | METHOD FOR PREPARING AN ENHANCED PROTON EXCHANGE MEMBRANE AND ENHANCED PROTON EXCHANGE MEMBRANE - A novel approach based on the increase of the intrinsic oxidative stability of uncrosslinked membranes is addressed. The co-grafting of styrene with methacrylonitrile (MAN), which possesses a protected α-position and strong dipolar pendant nitrile group, onto 25 μm ETFE base film is disclosed. Styrene/MAN co-grafted membranes were compared to styrene based membrane in durability tests in single H | 12-01-2011 |
| 20110104832 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING A FIELD-EMITTER ARRAY WITH CONTROLLED APEX SHARPNESS - A method of manufacturing field-emitter arrays by a molding technique includes uniformly controlling a shape of mold holes to obtain field emitter tips having diameters below 100 nm and blunted side edges. Repeated oxidation and etching of a mold substrate formed of single-crystal semiconductor mold wafers is carried out, wherein the mold holes for individual emitters are fabricated by utilizing the crystal orientation dependence of the etching rate. | 05-05-2011 |
| 20110090105 | Fast Readout Method and Switched Capacitor Array Circuitry for Waveform Digitizing - A method relates to a technique for reducing the readout time of switched capacitor array circuitries. An implementation is a SCA chip capable of sampling 12 differential input channels at a sampling speed of 10 MSPS to 5 GSPS. The analog waveform can be stored in 1024 sampling cells per channel, and can be read out after sampling via a shift register. The write signal for the sampling cells is generated by a chain of inverters. The domino wave runs continuously until stopped. A read shift register clocks the contents of the sampling cells to outputs, where it can be digitized. It is possible to read out only a part of the waveform for reducing the digitization time. The high channel density, high analog bandwidth of 450 MHz, and low noise of 0.35 mV makes this chip suited for low power, high speed, high precision waveform digitizing. | 04-21-2011 |
| 20100319460 | SENSOR AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE PRESSURE IN A FLUID - A method and an apparatus for determining a pressure (P | 12-23-2010 |
| 20100313691 | DEVICE FOR CONVERTING A FIRST MOTION INTO A SECOND MOTION RESPONSIVE TO THE FIRST MOTION UNDER A DEMAGNIFICATION SCALE - A device for converting a first movement into a second movement responsive to the first movement under a demagnification scale includes: a) an input portion being drivable in a rectilinear translation in a first direction by an actuator causing the first movement; b) an output portion being movable by a converting blade causing the second movement responsive to the first movement in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction; and c) a converting section connecting the input portion to the output portion. The converting section includes an intermediate spring portion and the converting blade. The intermediate spring portion has at least two parallel flexure blades; and the converting blade is substantially identical in shape to the a least two parallel flexure blades and is offset from its neutral position by a predetermined amount in the first direction as compared to the neutral position of the at least two parallel flexure blades. The device has a flexure-based structure that allows combining the advantages of classical actuators with accuracies in the micrometer range and the advantages of flexures to achieve nanometer accuracy. | 12-16-2010 |
| 20100232251 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CODING AND READ OUT OF INFORMATION IN A MICROSCOPIC CLUSTER COMPRISING COUPLED FUNCTIONAL ISLANDS - A method and a system for coding and reading out information in a microscopic cluster formed with coupled functional islands includes: generating the cluster by forming a regular microscopic pattern for locating the functional islands; making use of a physical or chemical property of each individual island and making use of the coupling between the functional islands; assigning different information to different energy levels of the cluster; effecting a change of the physical or chemical property of at least one functional island in order to change the energy level of the cluster to the energy level equivalent to the information content to be coded; and reading out the information. These measures allow forming a cluster having distinct energy levels, each being assigned to a distinct information content. These systems pave the way for future devices based on clusters of coupled islands and, armed with the complete knowledge of the energy states, the door is opened for use of these finite multistate clustered structures in future spintronic devices, for example for data storage, memory applications or to perform logic operations. | 09-16-2010 |
| 20100213390 | INORGANIC SCINTILLATING MIXTURE AND A SENSOR ASSEMBLY FOR CHARGED PARTICLE DOSIMETRY - An inorganic scintillating mixture includes at least a first and a second component, each having a characteristic behavior in response to the irradiation with charged particles, such as protons and heavy ions, showing a typical Bragg peak with respect to a relative depth dose. The first component has a quenching characteristic in the Bragg peak region and the second component shows an increased efficiency in the Bragg peak region both related to a reference curve for the relative dose. | 08-26-2010 |
| 20100205863 | Process to Produce a Methane Rich Gas Mixture From Gasification Derived Sulphur Containing Synthesis Gases - A method for converting a raw gas into a methane-rich and/or hydrogen-rich gas includes the following steps: a) providing the raw gas stemming from a coal and/or biomass gasification process, thereby the raw gas comprising beside a methane and hydrogen content carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, tar, especially benzole and naphthalene, COS, hydrogen sulfide and organic sulfur compounds, especially thiophenes; thereby the ratio of hydrogen to carbon monoxide ranges from 0.3 to 4; b) bringing this raw gas into contact with a catalyst in a fluidized bed reactor at temperatures above 200° C. and at pressures equal or greater than 1 bar in order to convert the raw gas into a first product gas, thereby simultaneously converting organic sulfur components into hydrogen sulfide, reform tars, generate water/gas shift reaction and generate methane from the hydrogen/carbon monoxide content; c) bringing the first product gas into a sulfur absorption process to generate a second product gas, thereby reducing the content of hydrogen sulfur and COS from 100 to 1000 ppm down to 1000 ppb or less; d) optionally bringing the second product gas into a carbon dioxide removal process to generate a third product gas at least almost free of carbon dioxide; e) bringing the third product gas into a second methanation process to generate a fourth product gas having a methane content above 5 vol %; f) optionally bringing the fourth product gas into a carbon dioxide removal process to generate a fifth product gas at least almost free of carbon dioxide g) bringing the fifth product gas into an hydrogen separation process in order to separate a hydrogen rich gas from a remaining methane-rich gas, called substitute natural gas. | 08-19-2010 |
| 20100117059 | LIGHT MODULATION COMPRISING SI-GE QUANTUM WELL LAYERS - Optical modulators include active quantum well structures coherent with pseudosubstrates comprising relaxed buffer layers on a silicon substrate. In a preferred method the active structures, consisting of Si | 05-13-2010 |
| 20090316857 | X-Ray Interferometer for Phase Contrast Imaging - The present invention relates to an interferometer for x-rays, in particular hard x-rays, for obtaining quantitative x-ray images from an object, comprising: a) an x-ray source, preferably a standard polly chromatic x-ray source, b) a diffractive beam splitter grating other than a Bragg crystal, preferably in transmission geometry, c) a position-sensitive detector detector with spatially modulated detection sensitivity having a number of individual pixels; d) means for recording the images of the detector in a phase-stepping approach; and e) means for evaluating the intensities for each pixel in a series of images in order to identify the characteristic of the object for each individual pixel as an absorption dominated pixel and/or an differential phase contrast dominated pixel and/or an x-ray scattering dominated pixel. | 12-24-2009 |
| 20090305093 | Method and Plant for Converting Solid Biomass into Electricity - A self-contained system for the generation of electrical energy from biomass by gasification combines several process units in one self-contained system. The global properties are greater than the sum of the individual properties of the process units. | 12-10-2009 |
| 20090286065 | METHOD FOR GENERATING SUPRAMOLECULAR ROTARY DEVICES AND SUPRAMOLECULAR ROTARY SWITCH - A method for generating a porous network of supra-molecular devices includes the steps of: a) providing self-organizing molecules comprising connecting bonds and side-groups; b) generating a two-dimensional layer of the molecules on an unstructured surface, wherein self-organizing leads to an at least partially regular network of cells, each cell comprising a number of said self-organizing molecules and each cell offering a functional center; and c) further depositing a predefined amount of said self-organizing molecules and/or of other functional molecules on said two-dimensional layer, wherein these further deposited molecules accommodating in said functional centers of said cells, one or more of said further deposited molecules per cell, wherein said further deposited molecule comprises a multi-stable architecture together with the cell hosting the further deposited molecule. This method provides a rotary switch that offers on a large scale a bottom-up self assembly of the self-organizing molecules that result in a nanoporous network with single supra-molecular switches that can be addressed individually and switched by changing its orientation. Such rotary switch is at low cost a very flexible and powerful nanodevice that can be largely used in molecular electronic applications, such as for the purpose of storing information. | 11-19-2009 |
| 20090285352 | Readout Chip for Single Photon Counting - A readout chip for single photon counting has a plurality of N individually working channels each assigned to a respective detector diode. Each channel has a counter designed as a binary counter having a length of M bits and a number of programmable bits. Further, the readout chip has a serial shift register or parallel data input register for entering values for the counter and the programmable bits, and a number of data output shift registers each having a number of K data outputs. Means are provided for selectively multiplexing each of the K data outputs onto a selectable bit of the data output shift register. | 11-19-2009 |
| 20090217456 | Self-Propelled Patient Transport System - A patient transport system includes a patient table, a self-propelled support vehicle having means for loading the patient table and means for unloading the patient table, a patient diagnosis and/or therapy station, and a control means for controlling an operation of the at least one self-propelled support vehicle. A patient disposed on the patient table is presentable at the patient diagnosis and/or therapy station by controllably moving the support vehicle. The means for unloading the patient table are provided to unload the patient table from the support vehicle into a determined position within the patient diagnosis and/or therapy station. The means for loading the patient table are provided to load the patient table from the determined position within the patient diagnosis and/or therapy station into a determined position on the support vehicle. | 09-03-2009 |
| 20090176968 | Preparation of Triazole Containing Metal Chelating Agents - New chelating agents as well as their tricarbonyl complexes with technetium and rhenium and the use of these compounds in radiodiagnosis and radiotherapy are described. As a peculiarity of this invention, synthesis and coupling of the chelating systems to (bio)molecules is performed simultaneously. The new chelating agents are coupled to substances that accumulate in the diseased/targeted tissue. | 07-09-2009 |
| 20090127202 | Fast Reduction of Iodine Species to Iodide - In a method for a retention of iodine species which are comprised in an aqueous solution a nucleophilic agent or a mixture of a plurality of nucleophilic agents is added to the aqueous solution. Further, a soluble ion-exchanger agent or a mixture of a plurality of soluble ion-exchanger agents is added to the aqueous solution. | 05-21-2009 |
| 20090053611 | Method for Preparing a Membrane to Be Assembled in a Membrane Electrode Assembly and Membrane Electrode Assembly - A membrane electrode assembly includes a cathode layer, an anode layer, and a polymer electrolyte sandwiched between the cathode layer and the anode layer. The polymer electrolyte layer is a polymer film having a plurality of sections. The sections are radiation grafted and sulfonated, wherein the sections are separated from each other by separation bands. The separation bands are untreated sections of the polymer electrolyte layer. | 02-26-2009 |
| 20080314411 | Reactor for Direct Utilization of External Radiation Heat for Thermal or Thermochemical Material Processes - A reactor for direct utilization of external radiation heat includes a containment can having a longitudinal axis, an external driving mechanism for controllable rotating the containment can and a cavity having a cylindrical shape. The cavity is partially lined with an insulation layer and disposed in the containment can. The cavity has a gas inlet, a gas outlet and an aperture for allowing to insert the external radiation heat into the cavity. A feeder mechanism is moveable along the longitudinal axis into and out of the cavity for supplying the material subject to the thermal or thermo-chemical material process. The gas outlet is formed as a ring channel tube having an inner and an outer surface, wherein the feeder mechanism is at least partially hosted within a tube cavity defined by the inner surface. Cooling means are associated with the inner and/or outer surface. | 12-25-2008 |
| 20080309295 | Detachable Charge Control Circuit for Balancing the Voltage of Supercapacitors Connected in Series - A supercapacitors voltage balancing device ( | 12-18-2008 |
| 20080199754 | Method for Preparing a Radiation Grafted Fuel Cell Membrane with Enhanced Chemical Stability and a Membrane Electrode Assembly - In a method for preparing a membrane to be assembled in a membrane electrode assembly, such as a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell, a base polymer film is irradiated with at least one of electromagnetic and particle radiation in order to form reactive centers within the polymer film. The irradiated film is exposed to a mixture of monomers amenable to radical polymerization to form a graft copolymer in the irradiated film. The mixture includes α-methylstyrene and methacrylonitrile. The grafted film is sulfonated to introduce sulfonic acid sites providing ionic conductivity of the material. | 08-21-2008 |
