material on the conductive top surface of the conductive layer.

JA. Sekhar and I? de Nora, assignors to Moltech Invent S.A., Luxembourg, Luxembourg A method of producing a metal by electrolysis in a cell containing a metal oxide or other metal com- pound dissolved in a molten salt electrolyte and electrolysis cell components.

US. Patent 6,402,931. June 11,2002 C. Zhou, et al., assignors to Faraday Technology Marketing Group LLC, Troy, Ohio A method for electrochemical deburring of a metal substrate comprising interposing an electrolyte between a metallic substrate including burrs and an electrically conductive tool and passing an electric cur- rent between the tool and sub- strate to effect anodic dissolu- tion of the burrs, wherein the electric current is a pulsed current comprised of anodic pulses and cathodic pulses.

US. Patent 6,402,978. June 11,2002 L. Levin, assignor to MPM Ltd., Haifa, Israel A magnetic polishing fluid compo- sition comprising colloidal size magnetic particles with a mean particle size range from O.Olm to 0.15m; colloidal size polishing par- ticles with a mean particle size range O.Olm to O.lm; at least one stabilizer for the colloidal size par- ticles; at least one oxidizer; at least one inhibitor for controlling the rate of oxidation of the oxidizer; and a carrying fluid; wherein the pH is in the range from 0.5 to 5.5.

G. Jonschker; et al., assignors to Institut fur Neue Materialien gemeinnutzige GmbH, Sowbruckw, Germany A process for protecting a metallic substrate against corrosion resulting from the formation of at least one species derived from at least one metal if the metallic substrate, the process comprising coating the metal with a composi- tion comprising at least one poly- siloxane of heteropolysiloxane prepared by hydrolysis and con- densation of at least one hydrolysable silane, and curing the composition to form an inor- ganic network.

U.S. Patent 6,403,168. June II,2002 H. Meyer and R. Schulz, assignors to Atotech Deutschland GmbH, Berlin, Germany A process for depositing metal coatings on polymide surfaces comprising deposition of a first metal coating on the polyimide surfaces by decomposition of volatile metal compounds by means of a glow discharge process to provide a coating catalytically active for subsequent electroless deposition from an acidic or neu- tral metallizing bath.

US. Patent 6,403,213. June 11,2002 PL. Huesmann, assignor to E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., Wilmington, Del. A substrate coated with a non- stick coating, comprising on undercoat and a fluoropolymer overcoat, the undercoat contain- ing inorganic filler of ceramic par- ticles, the particles having a par- ticle size of 1 micrometer or less and an aspect ratio of not greater than 2.5; at least one adhesion promoter, wherein the weight pro-

portion of inorganic filler to adhe- sion promoter is in the range of 5:l to 1.7:l; and 0 to 25% of a flu- oropolymer based on the weight of the composition of the under- coat layer after baking.

US. Patent 6,403,230. June 11,2002 S.G. Keener, assignor to McDonnell Douglas Corp. Long Beach, Calif An article prepared by a method com- prising providing an article precursor stock made an aluminum alloy; solu- tion treating and annealing the article precursor; deforming the article pre- cursor; aging the article at room tem- perature; providing a curable, cross- linkable, phenolic resin-containing organic coating material in an organic solvent; applying the organic coating material to the aluminum alloy article precursor; and heat treating the coat- ed aluminum article precursor to an ultimate shear strength at a tempera- ture and for a time sticient to simul- taneously cure the organic coating.

VS. Patent 6,403,234. June 11,2002 A. Kodama and K. Fukamachi, assig- nors to Nippon Mining & Metals Co., Ltd., Tokyo A plated material for connectors having superior insertion and withdrawal properties comprising an intermediate layer consisting of nickel alloy plating and at least one of phosphorous and boron and having a Vickers hardness of 450 to 750 and a thickness of 0.3 to 2m provided on a base metal con- sisting of copper or copper alloy; a reflowed tin or tin alloy plated sur- face layer provided thereon; and an alloy layer consisting primarily of tin-nickel and having a thick- ness of 0.05 to 2m formed by diffu- sion between the intermediate layer and surface layer, in which average grain size of the tin-nickel compound is 0.05 to lm.