A process for extending the cyclic service life of thermal barrier coatings made of yttrium-stabilized zirconium oxide or the like which have been applied to a substrate with an oxidizing bond coat in between includes increasing or long-term stabilizing the strain tolerance of the thermal barrier coating. An image pickup processing unit is operated in a plurality of operation modes, and has an image pickup device and a plurality of processing units that process image pickup signals outputted from the image pickup device. A single token flows through a ring which passes through the plurality of cells, wherein the presence of the token within a cell indicates that the corresponding transmitter may communicate with the receiver. during the epitaxial growth, the actual growth rate can be maintained essentially constant. The laser is turned on when the laser power gap adjacent the first servo sector rotates past the transducer.