Did You Know...
...that after Walter Hunt patented the safety pin in 1849, he sold the rights to it for $400?
PatentStorm News
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8189204 | Surface wave enabled darkfield aperture Embodiments of the present invention relate to a surface wave enabled darkfield aperture structure comprising an aperture layer, a aperture in the aperture layer and a plurality of grooves around the aperture. The aperture layer has a first and second surface. The p... | 05/29/2012 |
| 8134716 | Methods and apparatus for measuring wavefronts and for determining scattered light, and related devices and manufacturing methods A method and apparatus for spatially resolved wavefront measurement on a test specimen, a method and apparatus for spatially resolved scattered light determination, a diffraction structure support and a coherent structure support therefor, and also an objective or o... | 03/13/2012 |
| 8120783 | Biosensing apparatus and method using optical interference A label-free interferometric biosensor is disclosed which is based on the self-mixing optical interferometer. Inside the biosensor, an incoming beam is divided into two beam portions which pass through a channel and bio materials, respectively. Interference of the p... | 02/21/2012 |
| 8111404 | Method for determining the dynamic range of volume holographic A method for measuring a saturated photorefractive index and a recording time constant to correct the precision includes measuring the diffraction efficiency as a function of time for both phase matching and phase mismatching. The saturated photorefractive index and... | 02/07/2012 |
| 8081319 | Adjustable two dimensional lamellar grating An adjustable two-dimensional lamellar grating system including a lamellar grating and a movable mirror disposed substantially parallel to one another, and an interferometer using the adjustable lamellar grating system. In one example, the lamellar grating includes ... | 12/20/2011 |
| 8081318 | Non-periodic wavefront dividing interferometer A non-periodic reflection beamsplitter or reflector for use in an interferometer. The interferometer employs non-periodic reflectors or a non-periodic beamsplitter in order to produce interference patterns to analyze. The non-periodic reflectors or beamsplitters may... | 12/20/2011 |
| 8045178 | Interferometric tracking device An interferometric tracking device is disclosed. A first grating is optically coupled to a second grading such that the second grating is rotationally offset from the first grating. Imaging optics are adapted to image light passing through the first and second grati... | 10/25/2011 |
| 8004690 | Device and method for the optical measurement of an optical system, measurement structure support, and microlithographic projection exposure apparatus A device for the optical measurement of an optical system which, in a useful operating mode, receives useful radiation on a useful radiation entrance side and emits it on a useful radiation exit side. The device includes a measurement radiation source, by which at l... | 08/23/2011 |
| 8004692 | Optical interferometer and method Disclosed are compact optical interferometer array, miniature optical interferometer array, and miniature optical interferometer. The interferometer arrays contain a spatial phase modulator array and a detector array. They are used for conducting multiple measuremen... | 08/23/2011 |
| 8004691 | Measuring apparatus, exposure apparatus and method, and device manufacturing method A measuring apparatus includes a pinhole mask, located on an object plane of an optical system to be measured, and having a plurality of pinholes for generating a spherical wave from a measuring light beam, and a diffraction grating for splitting the measuring light... | 08/23/2011 |
| 7982883 | On-chip phase microscope/beam profiler based on differential interference contrast and/or surface plasmon assisted interference A differential interference contrast (DIC) determination device and method utilizes an illumination source, a layer having a pair of two apertures that receive illumination from the illumination source, and a photodetector to receive Young's interference from the il... | 07/19/2011 |
| 7978342 | Method and apparatus for measuring expansion of materials Methods for measuring expansion of a test sample. One method includes establishing a diffraction slit between two blades, with the position of at least one of the blades being dependent upon the length of a test sample of material. As the temperature of the sample c... | 07/12/2011 |
| 7952726 | Measurement apparatus, exposure apparatus having the same, and device manufacturing method A measurement apparatus includes a first mask that is arranged on an object plane of a target optical system, and has a window that transmits measurement light, a second mask that has a reflection surface for reducing coherence of the measurement light, and a diffra... | 05/31/2011 |
| 7894077 | Multi-directional projection type moire interferometer and inspection method of using the same A multi-directional projection type moiré interferometer includes a stage, an image formation part, rotating mirrors, fixed mirrors, and a pattern illumination generating part. The stage moves a target object. The image formation part is provided above the stage to... | 02/22/2011 |
| 7864340 | Wavefront analysis method involving multilateral interferometry with frequency difference The method comprises positioning a diffraction grating with a two-dimensional meshing on the path of the beam to be analyzed and processing at least two interferograms of at least two different colors, each interferogram being obtained in a plane from two sub-beams ... | 01/04/2011 |
| 7826066 | Compact achromatic optical interferometer of the three-wave lateral shearing type A method and a system for analyzing the wavefront of a light beam, wherein a diffraction grating is arranged in a plane perpendicular to the light beam to be analyzed and optically conjugated to the analysis plane. Different emerging beams of the grating interfere t... | 11/02/2010 |
| 7826065 | Tuned optical cavity magnetometer An atomic magnetometer is disclosed which utilizes an optical cavity formed from a grating and a mirror, with a vapor cell containing an alkali metal vapor located inside the optical cavity. Lasers are used to magnetically polarize the alkali metal vapor and to prob... | 11/02/2010 |
| 7812968 | Fringe projection system and method for a probe using a coherent fiber bundle A probe is presented that includes a light source, a coherent fiber bundle, and a pattern selector. The pattern selector is disposed between the light source and the proximal end of the coherent fiber bundle. The pattern selector includes at least one patterned zone... | 10/12/2010 |
| 7804601 | Methods for making holographic reticles for characterizing optical systems Characterization of an optical system is quickly and easily obtained in a single acquisition step by obtaining image data within a volume of image space. A reticle and image plane are positioned obliquely with respect to each other such that a reticle having a plura... | 09/28/2010 |
| 7777895 | Linear-carrier phase-mask interferometer A phase-difference sensor measures the spatially resolved difference in phase between orthogonally polarized reference and test wavefronts. The sensor is constructed as a linear-carrier phase-mask aligned to and imaged on a linear-carrier detector array. Each adjace... | 08/17/2010 |
| 7768654 | On-chip phase microscope/beam profiler based on differential interference contrast and/or surface plasmon assisted interference A differential interference contrast (DIC) determination device and method utilizes an illumination source, a layer having a pair of two apertures that receive illumination from the illumination source, and a photodetector to receive Young's interference from the il... | 08/03/2010 |
| 7656539 | Multi-conjugate adaptive optics system for field conjugation A multi-conjugate adaptive optics system is described that reduces aberration-induced fluctuations of amplitude and phase in a beam without requiring the explicit measurement and feedback control of the beam's irradiance profile. The system uses a pair of wavefront ... | 02/02/2010 |
| 7633630 | Image amplifying, servo-loop controlled, point diffraction interometer An apparatus in one example has: first and second Fourier transform lenses, the first Fourier transform lens receiving an incident plane wavefront and focusing the plane wavefront down to a focal point in a focal plane, and the second Fourier transform lens reimagin... | 12/15/2009 |
| 7633631 | Three-dimensional microscope and method for obtaining three-dimensional image A microscope which has a high three-dimensional resolution, does not require specimens to be stained and is easy to operate, is presented. The three-dimensional microscope includes a first optical system for illuminating an object with lights in a plurality of illum... | 12/15/2009 |
| 7626708 | Phase shifting grating-slit test for optical surface reconstruction An optical system representing the configuration of a tested element disposed therein is provided. The optical system comprises a light source emitting a spatial-incoherent light having a phase shifting scheme toward the tested element and then forming an image with... | 12/01/2009 |
| 7609392 | Harmonically matched diffraction grating pair A method and device realize shallow gratings-based planar beam splitter/combiner. Non-trivial phase shifts between different ports of resulting interferometers are used to acquire full-field phase measurements. The non-trivial phase shifts between different ports of... | 10/27/2009 |
| 7609391 | Optical lattice microscopy An optical system includes a substrate adapted for supporting a sample, where the substrate has a refractive index, nsub, larger than a refractive index of the sample, nsample, a source of electromagnetic radiation having wavelength, λo | 10/27/2009 |
| 7599071 | Determining positional error of an optical component using structured light patterns Described is an interferometric surface contour measurement system for projecting structured light patterns onto an object. The measurement system includes an interferometric projector, an imager, and a processor. The imager is rigidly coupled to the projector to ma... | 10/06/2009 |
| 7554675 | Light wavefront measuring instrument, light wavefront measuring method, and light source adjusting method A light wavefront measuring apparatus (2, 2a, 42) includes a separating element (7a, 47a) for separating a flux of light which exits from an optical head (1, 31) into a first beam and a second beam, a first int... | 06/30/2009 |
| 7518737 | Displacement-measuring optical device with orifice Micron-scale displacement measurement devices having enhanced performance characteristics are disclosed. One embodiment of a micron-scale displacement measurement device includes a phase-sensitive reflective diffraction grating for reflecting a first portion of an i... | 04/14/2009 |
| 7480060 | Interferometric optical position encoder employing spatial filtering of diffraction orders for improved accuracy An optical position encoder employs spatial filtering of diffraction orders other than +/− 1st diffraction orders for greater accuracy. The encoder includes a light source, a scale including a diffractive scale pattern, an optical detector adjacent to the scale, a... | 01/20/2009 |
| 7474413 | Method and apparatus for analyzing interference fringe Disclosed is a method of analyzing an interference fringe, with which method the optical characteristics of an optical system to be examined can be analyzed very precisely. In one preferred form of the invention, the analyzing method includes a step of detecting inf... | 01/06/2009 |
| 7460248 | Tissue imaging system A tissue imaging system (200) for examining the medical condition of tissue (290) has an illumination optical system (205), which comprises a light source (220), having one or more light emitters, beam shaping optics, and polarizing optic... | 12/02/2008 |
| 7443514 | Diffractive null corrector employing a spatial light modulator The present invention is directed to a system and method for using a spatial light modulator (SLM) to perform a null test of an (aspheric) optical surface. In an embodiment, such a system includes an interferometer, an optical element, and an SLM. The interferometer... | 10/28/2008 |
| 7440117 | Highly-sensitive displacement-measuring optical device Micron-scale displacement measurement devices having enhanced performance characteristics are disclosed. One embodiment of a micron-scale displacement measurement device includes a phase-sensitive reflective diffraction grating for reflecting a first portion of an i... | 10/21/2008 |
| 7436521 | Optical measuring apparatus and operating method for imaging error correction in an optical imaging system A measuring apparatus for optical, for example interferometric, measurement of an optical imaging system, imaging of a useful pattern in an imaging operation, including a device for production of radiation information, for example interference information, which is ... | 10/14/2008 |
| 7430036 | Maskless exposure apparatus using optical modulator, and method for monitoring pattern generating performance by the optical modulator A pattern monitoring method for an exposure apparatus that includes an optical modulator having at least one element that provides incident light with plural phase differences, and a projection optical system that uses first diffracted light among lights exited from... | 09/30/2008 |
| 7428059 | Measurement method and apparatus, exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method A measurement method measures a wavefront aberration of a target optical system using an interference pattern formed by lights from first and second image side slits. The first image side slit has a width equal to or smaller than a diffraction limit of the target op... | 09/23/2008 |
| 7428058 | Apparatus and method for in situ and ex situ measurements of optical system flare Apparatus and methods for in situ and ex situ measurements of spatial profiles of the modulus of the complex amplitude and intensity of flare generated by an optical system. The in situ and ex situ measurements comprise interferometric and non-interferometric measur... | 09/23/2008 |
| 7426038 | Detection device, optical path length measurement device, measurement instrument, optical member evaluation method, and temperature change detection method An object of the invention is to provide a detection apparatus, an optical path length measuring apparatus, a method for evaluating an optical member, and the like, which can evaluate optical characteristics such as chromatic dispersion and an optical path length at... | 09/16/2008 |
