Did You Know...
...that in 1800 ether was first used by partyers as a fun diversion? Sniffing the gas led to hilarious and raucous laughter as people watched each other become more and more intoxicated and silly. Several doctors independently realized the value ether would have to anesthetize surgery patients. Of those who claimed rights to the "discovery," none had a happy ending. One had a seizure and died defending his rights. Another spent his life in an asylum because he had been denied acclaim. A third became addicted to chloroform and, in a New York City jail, he soaked a cloth in the drug, severed an artery and bled to death.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7373038 | Optical switch having a reflective component A reflective optical switch for use in optical systems, such as fiber optic communications networks, is disclosed. The optical switch includes not only signal transmission characteristics, but also signal reflection capability. The optical switch includes a semicond... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7372480 | Non-lithographic photo-induced patterning of polymers from liquid crystal solvents with spatially modulated director fields A liquid crystal device comprises a first and second cell wall structure; at least one liquid crystal material disposed within a space between the first and second cell wall structures; and polymer micro-structures, wherein the micro-structures are formed by polymer... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7359028 | Method of manufacturing liquid crystal display device A method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display device having good display quality, includes defoaming a liquid crystal composition having a mixture of liquid crystal and a polymerizable component to be polymerized by light or heat; dropping or transferring the l... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7327434 | Tunable electronic lens and prisms using inhomogeneous nano scale liquid crystal droplets Using inhomogeneous sized liquid crystal (LC) droplets for lens and prisms. For forming a positive lens, the LC droplet size can gradually increase from the center to the side edges. For forming a negative lens, the LC droplet size can gradually decrease from the ce... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7317527 | Spatial light modulator fourier transform A filter to selectively block light from passing through the filter and to selectively permit light to pass through the filter. The filter includes an array with a plurality of individually addressable filter elements. Each filter element is selectively settable to ... | 01/08/2008 |
| 7312906 | Switchable polymer-dispersed liquid crystal optical elements Transmission and reflection type holograms may be formed utilizing a novel polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) material and its unique switching characteristics to form optical elements. Applications for these switchable holograms include communications switches... | 12/25/2007 |
| 7280181 | Liquid crystal polymer optical filter carrier An external cavity laser apparatus includes a wavelength tuning element mounted to a carrier on the apparatus's platform. Thermal control of the platform sets an initial position of the carrier and tuning element, from which independent tuning of the element can be ... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7278760 | Light-emitting electronic component A light-emitting electronic component is described that includes at least one light-emitting element intended for the emission of light with a predetermined spectral distribution, at least one filter element arranged in a beam path of the light with the predetermine... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7265903 | Switchable polymer-dispersed liquid crystal optical elements Transmission and reflection type holograms may be formed utilizing a novel polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) material and its unique switching characteristics to form optical elements. Applications for these switchable holograms include communications switches... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7265882 | Switchable polymer-dispersed liquid crystal optical elements Transmission and reflection type holograms may be formed utilizing a novel polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) material and its unique switching characteristics to form optical elements. Applications for these switchable holograms include communications switches... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7259815 | Two-way trans-reflective display A two-way trans-reflective display pixel (100) having two viewable sides (102, 104) is disclosed. The two-way trans-reflective display pixel has a first transparent layer (106), a second transparent layer (108), and light modulating mediu... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7256915 | Switchable polymer-dispersed liquid crystal optical elements Transmission and reflection type holograms may be formed utilizing a novel polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) material and its unique switching characteristics to form optical elements. Applications for these switchable holograms include communications switches... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7253873 | Dynamic gain equalizer A dynamic gain equalizer (1) comprises a spectroscope (4) for separating a light entering from an incoming end, a liquid crystal optical switch (5) for receiving spectral components separated by the spectroscope (4), and a lens system ( | 08/07/2007 |
| 7245792 | Silicon-based tunable single passband optical filter A tunable optical filter includes a tunable Fabry-Perot (FP) filter, two tunable waveguide Bragg gratings (WBGs) and a 2×2 3-dB coupler. In one embodiment, the WBGs are implemented in a silicon substrate using polysilicon filled trenches. The FP filter is implement... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7221429 | Wavelength locker with liquid crystal tunable filter generating transmitted and reflected outputs A wavelength locker operates with a reference tunable liquid crystal filter having integrated photodetectors deposited on the front and backside of the liquid crystal cell to track power intensity of the accepted passband signal and its rejected signal compliment at... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7199928 | Optical element, optical drop module, optical add-drop module, and tunable light source An optical element has a structure in that a first mirror stack layer is formed on a substrate. A first transparent conductive film, a conductive buffer layer, a spacer layer having a primary or secondary electrooptic effect, a conductive buffer layer and a second t... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7167230 | Liquid crystal variable wavelength filter unit, and driving method thereof A liquid crystal variable wavelength filter unit and its driving method applicable for a Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) communication system and an optical network using an optical fiber. The liquid crystal variable wavelength filter unit (130) includ... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7164865 | Optical fiber communication equipment and its applied optical systems An object of disclosed technology is to control lasing wavelengths so that a wavelength shift does not occurs. Another object is to permit wavelengths of a light source for wavelength division multiplexing optical-fiber communication system to be variable in respons... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7145616 | Transflective liquid crystal device A transflective-type liquid crystal display device, comprising, at least, a pair of substrates, and a liquid crystal material disposed between the pair of substrates. The liquid crystal material is a polarization-shielded smectic liquid crystal material capable of p... | 12/05/2006 |
| 7145165 | Tunable laser fluid sensor A sensitive fluid sensor for detecting fluids and particularly trace fluids. The sensor may be adjustable for detecting fluids of various absorption lines. To effect such adjustment, a tunable laser may be used. The laser may be an edge emitting diode, a VCSEL or ot... | 12/05/2006 |
| 7142280 | Extended chiral defect structure apparatus and method A chiral structure having an advantageous extended chiral defect that provides an enhanced energy distribution characteristic therein. This is accomplished by configuring a central portion of the chiral structure with a pitch different from the rest of the structure... | 11/28/2006 |
| 7127179 | Polarization encoder device A optical polarization encoding device (16) provides wavelength dependent processing of polychromatic optical signals without prior separation into narrow wavelength bands. Embodiments of the encoding device include a wavelength dependent tunable optical swit... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7106512 | Wavelength selective switching device and method for selectively transmitting optical signals based on wavelength A wavelength selective switching device and method for selectively transmitting optical signals based on wavelength utilizes diffraction to spatially separate the optical signals of different wavelengths such that the optical signal of a selected wavelength can be s... | 09/12/2006 |
| 7106922 | Silicon-based tunable single passband optical filter A tunable optical filter includes a tunable Fabry-Perot (FP) filter, two tunable waveguide Bragg gratings (WBGs) and a 2×2 3-dB coupler. In one embodiment, the WBGs are implemented in a silicon substrate using polysilicon filled trenches. The FP filter is implement... | 09/12/2006 |
| 7102120 | Optical module with built-in wavelength locker An optical module comprises a splitting element that splits light outputted from a light source; a first monitoring means that detects the intensity of light split by the splitting element; a polarization control means that switches the polarization state of light o... | 09/05/2006 |
| 7079203 | Electrically tunable polarization-independent micro lens using polymer network twisted nematic liquid crystal Inhomogeneous concentrated polymer network with approximately 90° twisted nematic liquid crystal (TN-LC) is used for fabricating lens and prisms. For forming a positive lens, the approximately 90° TN-LC polymer network concentration can gradually decrease from the... | 07/18/2006 |
| 7078749 | Memory structure having tunable interlayer dielectric and method for fabricating same According to one embodiment, a memory structure comprises a substrate having a channel region situated between a source region and a drain region. The memory structure further comprises a gate layer formed over the channel region of the substrate, and a tunable inte... | 07/18/2006 |
| 7072113 | Wavelength selective switching device and method for selectively transmitting optical signals based on wavelength A wavelength selective switching device and method for selectively transmitting optical signals based on wavelength utilizes diffraction to spatially separate the optical signals of different wavelengths such that the optical signal of a selected wavelength can be s... | 07/04/2006 |
| 7068405 | Switchable polymer-dispersed liquid crystal optical elements Transmission and reflection type holograms may be formed utilizing a novel polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) material and its unique switching characteristics to form optical elements. Applications for these switchable holograms include communications switches... | 06/27/2006 |
| 7057832 | Microlens for projection lithography and method of preparation thereof Methods and systems for effecting responses on surfaces utilizing microlens arrays including microoptical components embedded or supported by a support element and positioned from the surface at a distance essentially equal to the image distance of the microoptical ... | 06/06/2006 |
| 7050215 | Method and apparatus for providing a gas correlation filter for remote sensing of atmospheric trace gases A correlation filter is provided having passbands at wavelengths corresponding to the absorption spectrum of an atmospheric gas of interest. In particular, the correlation filter features narrow, non-linearly spaced passbands having center wavelengths that are corre... | 05/23/2006 |
| 7042549 | Tunable electronic lens and prisms using inhomogeneous nano scale liquid crystal droplets Using inhomogeneous sized liquid crystal (LC) droplets for lens and prisms. For forming a positive lens, the LC droplet size can gradually increase from the center to the side edges. For forming a negative lens, the LC droplet size can gradually decrease from the ce... | 05/09/2006 |
| 7030991 | Field condensing imaging system for remote sensing of atmospheric trace gases A sensor system featuring a field angle compression telescope optical system for measuring atmospheric trace gases is provided. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the telescope optical system condenses the field angle of received light with respect... | 04/18/2006 |
| 7019906 | Indium-tin oxide thin film filter for dense wavelength division multiplexing A DWDM thin film filter includes a substrate (11) and a film stack (12). The film stack comprises a plurality of cavities (13). Each cavity includes a first group of mirror layers (21), a second group of mirror layers (22), and a s... | 03/28/2006 |
| 7002646 | Tunable thin film optical devices and fabrication methods for tunable thin film optical devices Thin film structures include electro-optic materials and transparent conducting materials which are combined to fabricate vertical optical devices. The electro-optic materials are responsive to an electric field to change an optical characteristic. For example, a mo... | 02/21/2006 |
| 6975454 | Variable polarization-dependent-loss source An optical device including a beam splitter, polarization controller, and beam combiner is described. In some embodiments, the beam splitter and beam combiner are provided in a single element. An incoming light beam is split into two beams with different polarizatio... | 12/13/2005 |
| 6963404 | Fabry-Perot device compensating for an error of full width at half maximum and method of making the same The present invention discloses a Fabry-Perot device compensating for an error of full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) and a manufacturing method for the device. The Fabry-Perot device mainly consisted of a Fabry-Perot resonant cavity for a light to pass through. The c... | 11/08/2005 |
| 6954253 | Optical multiplexer and cross-switch using etched liquid crystal fabry-perot etalons A novel aspect to the invention is a structural arrangement to widen the Fabry-Perot gap beyond a 100-micron LC thickness. The widening permits greatly enhanced spectral discrimination (i.e. many more WDM channels) across the device response range, which is expanded... | 10/11/2005 |
| 6947218 | Fabry-perot etalon with independently selectable resonance frequency and free spectral range The invention relates generally to optical interference filters and interferometers. Methods, devices and device components for optical signal generation and processing using optical interference filters and interferometers are presented. The invention provides opti... | 09/20/2005 |
| 6888661 | Square filter function tunable optical devices A tunable optical device includes a thin film device. The thin film device includes a plurality of cavities each including an electro-optic material. The electro-optic material includes an optical characteristic capable of being manipulated by application of an elec... | 05/03/2005 |
