Donald C Watts, 78Segovia, TX

4579475, Apr 1, 1986

Jan 23, 1984

6/573162

Leonard J. Hart-Smith - Long Beach CA
Bruce L. Bunin - Huntington Beach CA
Donald J. Watts - Fountain Valley CA

The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Washington DC

F16B 202
F16D 102

403312

A joint for joining composite material such as segments of the skin 12 and 13 of an aircraft. Tapered splice plates 30 and 31 overlap the ends 14 and 15 of the skin. The thickest portion 34 of the splice plates overlap the ends 14 and 15. The splice plates are clamped together on the skin segments 12 and 13 by fasteners 50, 52, 54 and 56. The tapered splice plates are designed to minimize load transfer at the outermost bolt row 56 coincident with maximum bypass stress in the skin segments while simultaneously maximizing load transfer in both the skin segments and splice plates at the innermost bolt row 50.

5656189, Aug 12, 1997

Dec 2, 1994

8/348468

Jeff David Crockett - Fullerton CA
Donald Alan Watts - Tustin CA

Efratom Time and Frequency Products, Inc. - Irvine CA

H05B 102

219499

A heater controller for an atomic frequency standard provides accurate and stable temperature control for an assembly, such as a lamp assembly, by regulating a current flow through a heating device so as to maintain a substantially constant heating power output during start-up and by reducing the DC temperature errors of the system during normal operation. The heater controller includes an integrating amplifier which generates an amplified temperature signal based on the temperature of the lamp assembly. The heater controller further includes a device for receiving the amplified signal from the integrating amplifier and establishing a control voltage having an upper limit based on a voltage of the heater power supply. An attenuator is provided for attenuating an output signal from the receiving device by an attenuation factor sufficient to offset a substantial portion of the amplified temperature signal, as required for thermal control loop stability at a frequency above the gain transition frequency, wherein the attenuation factor permits an increase in the gain of the integrating amplifier above the gain transition frequency, and wherein the increase in gain is achieved by decreasing the value of the input resistor of the integrating amplifier. In turn, the reduction in value of the input resistor results in a decrease in an amount of DC temperature error generated by the lamp assembly, wherein the temperature error is a result of leakage currents and offset currents flowing in the integrating amplifier.