Engineering topics

Kirschman, R. K.

Publications and source records attributed to Kirschman, R. K..

6 records

NASA NTRS1993

Status of the cryogenic inertial reference system for the Gravity Probe B mission

We describe the status of the development and testing program for the inertial reference system for the Gravity Probe B gyroscopes. The gyroscope housings are attached to a cryogenic telescope with a 14 cm aperture that continuously points at a guide star. The star image is split to provide quadrant pointing information which is used to steer the spacecraft. This data is also combined with the gyro readout data to provide an absolute precession measurement. Motion of the guide star is independently checked by reference to background galaxies. Room temperature testing of a prototype telescope has been completed and preparations are being made for low temperature tests.

Lipa, J. A.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Photomask and pattern programs

Package of computer programs helps designers with layout and graphics of photomasks. Photomasks are specifically useful to applications involving fine reproducibility, repetition, and fabrication on planar surfaces of materials, items fabricated from photomasks include circuit boards, magnetic bubble devices and integrated optic circuits.

Kirschman, R. K.↗

NASA NTRS1978

Photomask and pattern programming manual

A user's manual for a set of computer programs written in FORTRAN for the layout and generation of photomasks is presented. A limited amount of related information on photomasks, their design, and use is included. Input to the programs includes data describing the photomask design. Possible outputs include plots of the layout and a magnetic tape for controlling generation of the photomask by a pattern generator.

Kirschman, R. K.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Microelectronic fabrication of superconducting devices and circuits

It is expected that thin-film superconductors can be used as detectors or sources of infrared and microwave radiation, as magnetometers, as voltage standards, and for voltage and current measurements, for electronic signal processing, and in digital circuitry.

Kirschman, R. K.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Advances in superconducting quantum electronic microcircuit fabrication

Standard microelectronic fabrication techniques have been utilized to produce batch quantities of superconducting quantum electronic devices and circuits. The overall goal is a fabrication technology yielding circuits that are rugged and stable and capable of being fabricated controllably and reproducibly in sizeable quantities. Our progress toward this goal is presented, with primary emphasis on the most recent work, which includes the use of electron-beam lithography and techniques of hybrid microelectronics. Several prototype microcircuits have been successfully fabricated. These microcircuits are formed in a thin-film parent material consisting of layers of superconducting and normal metals, and use proximity-effect structures as the active circuit elements.

Kirschman, R. K.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Weakly superconducting, thin-film structures as radiation detectors.

Measurements were taken with weakly superconducting quantum structures of the Notarys-Mercereau type, representing a thin superconductor film with a short region that is weakened in the sense that its transition temperature is lower than in the remaining portion of the film. The structure acts as a superconducting relaxation oscillator in which the supercurrent increases with time until the critical current of the weakened section is attained, at which moment the supercurrent decays and the cycle repeats. Under applied radiation, a series of constant-voltage steps appears in the current-voltage curve, and the size of the steps varies periodically with the amplitude of applied radiation. Measurements of the response characteristics were made in the frequency range of 10 to 450 MHz.

Kirschman, R. K.↗