Did You Know...
...that while attempting to develop a super strong glue, 3M employee Spencer Silver accidentally developed a glue that was so weak it would barely hold two pieces of paper together? However, his colleague Art Fry needed the glue. Fry sang with his church choir and marked the pages of his hymnal with small scraps of paper that often fell out. He used Silver's glue to hold the papers in place. Today we call this invention Post-it Notes.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7936509 | Wavelength locker A wavelength locker includes: a birefringent plate for separating light emitted from a light source into two beams of light which are approximately in parallel to each other; a first light receiving element for directly receiving one of the two beams of light separa... | 05/03/2011 |
| 7852560 | Display incorporating reflective polarizer A display includes a liquid crystal display panel, an optical cavity producing substantially collimated light and a birefringent reflective polarizer. ... | 12/14/2010 |
| 7843637 | Birefringent structured film for LED color mixing in a backlight An article for use in light spreading includes a body having first and second surfaces, and first and second in-plane axes that are orthogonal with respect to each other and a third axis that is mutually orthogonal to the first and second in-plane axes in a thicknes... | 11/30/2010 |
| 7821712 | Thin film tunable optical filter The tunable optical filter is provided, comprising an optical means for separating an input optical signal into a tunable drop optical signal and an output optical signal, wherein the output optical signal is directed back along the same path as the input optical si... | 10/26/2010 |
| 7821713 | Color light combining system for optical projector A color light combining system comprises a polarizing beam splitter that includes a reflective polarizer film, a first prism face that receives a first unpolarized color light, a second prism face that receives a second unpolarized color light, and a third prism fac... | 10/26/2010 |
| 7813040 | Multi-stage optical isolator A double stage isolator is formed of face-to-face slabs or sheets of materials that will suitably split, combine, non-reciprocally rotate to ensure isolation in a reverse direction from output ports to respective input ports of any light launched into the input port... | 10/12/2010 |
| 7715100 | Method and apparatus for generating radically and/or azimuthally polarized light beams A method and an apparatus for generating a polarized light beam to be projected onto an object plane are provided. A converging or diverging light beam (18) is generated. The converging or diverging light beam is projected through a member (22, 52) com... | 05/11/2010 |
| 7692861 | Illumination systems Described are illumination systems whereby light spectra from multiple LEDs of various colors can be combined and polarized with minimal components, while substantially reducing the losses for the combining and polarizing. The described systems and methods use polar... | 04/06/2010 |
| 7652820 | Reflective LCD projection system using wide-angle cartesian polarizing beam splitter and color separation and recombination prisms An optical imaging system including an illumination system, a Cartesian PBS, and a prism assembly. The illumination system provides a beam of light, the illumination system having an ƒ/# less than or equal to 2.5. The Cartesian polarizing beam splitter has a first ... | 01/26/2010 |
| 7542206 | Light collectors for projection systems Disclosed herein are light collectors for use in projection applications. The light collectors gather light from surface emitting sources (e.g., LEDs) of differing color (or same color in some embodiments) using input lightpipes. A light collection system splits the... | 06/02/2009 |
| 7538944 | Polarizing filter, and method for fabricating same A polarizing filter with a gapless polarization separating filter layer formed between a plane of incidence and a plate of transmission of the filter, the polarization separating filter layer being formed by connecting first filter layer sections alternately and cro... | 05/26/2009 |
| 7495830 | Polarisation recuperation system A polariser or a system for lighting using such a polariser in a polarisation recuperation system. The polariser comprises first and second polarising beam splitters (212a, 212b) for splitting first and second unpolarised beams each into ... | 02/24/2009 |
| 7492518 | Apparatus for transforming polarization and method thereof An apparatus for transforming a polarization and a method thereof are provided. The apparatus includes a polarization rotator for rotating a polarization plane of an input optical signal by a specified rotating angle, a polarization beam splitter for dividing the po... | 02/17/2009 |
| 7486443 | High extinction ratio and low crosstalk compact optical switches An improved optical switch utilizes one polarization modulator, with the beam components traversing it twice. Because of the twice traverse, the extinction ratio of the switch is doubled without the addition of another polarization modulator, thus avoiding the costs... | 02/03/2009 |
| 7468840 | Wavelength selective optical switch A wavelength selective switch, in which an input optical signal is wavelength-dispersed and polarization-split in two angularly oriented planes. A polarization rotation device, such as a liquid crystal polarization modulator, pixelated along the wave-length dispersi... | 12/23/2008 |
| 7466486 | Polarization separating element and method of manufacturing the same A polarization separating element which can be easily manufactured without increasing the cost and can separate light into plural directions by using one sheet. A polarization separating element includes a structural birefringence body having a base body made of a p... | 12/16/2008 |
| 7440075 | Birefringent optical system The invention relates to an optical system comprising a fluid chamber 1 and a birefringent part. The fluid chamber comprises first and second fluids 10, 12 having different indices of refraction, the interface between the fluids forming a meniscus 1... | 10/21/2008 |
| 7430078 | Multiple imaging arrangements for head mounted displays A head mounted display is disclosed that utilizes a single video display screen to transport images to both eyes. Multiple reflections are created by illuminating the display screen form a plurality of directions, or by illuminating the display screen with light bea... | 09/30/2008 |
| 7418202 | Article having a birefringent surface and microstructured features having a variable pitch or angles for use as a blur filter An optical low pass filter or blur filter, and method of making the filters, using an article having a birefringent surface for refracting incoming light when used with an image sensor. The birefringent surface of the article, such as a film, is structured or tilted... | 08/26/2008 |
| 7413317 | Polarized UV exposure system A light exposure system is used to expose an alignment layer formed of anistropically absorbing molecules so as to allow alignment of subsequently applied liquid crystal polymer (LCP) molecules. The light incident on the alignment layer is polarized. When a single p... | 08/19/2008 |
| 7414785 | Ultraviolet polarization beam splitter with minimum apodization A beamsplitter includes a first fluoride prism and a second fluoride prism. A coating interface is between the first and second fluoride prisms, wherein an overall R(s)*T(p) function of the beamsplitter varies no more than ±2.74% in the range of 40-50 degrees of in... | 08/19/2008 |
| 7400448 | Birefringent spectral filter A birefringent spectral filter comprises a first birefringent stage and a polarizing beam splitter optically coupled to the first birefringent stage. The first birefringent stage is adapted to generate an optical path difference between light propagating along each ... | 07/15/2008 |
| 7387388 | Illumination system using polarization conversion An apparatus and method is discloses for providing a substantially uniform, homogenous, polarized light. A beam of substantially un-polarized light is provided by a conventional light source. The un-polarized light is converted to at least four real images by using ... | 06/17/2008 |
| 7385760 | Optical element and optical pickup device used therewith An optical element for reflecting light has a substrate and a thin film formed on the substrate. The thin film reflects light in a predetermined reflection wavelength band so that the thin film adjusts a difference in phase differences between a P-polarized light co... | 06/10/2008 |
| 7382466 | Coating for reflective optical components An optical component has a coating including one or more layers at each reflecting surface. The coating causes the optical component to have polarization eigenstates that are substantially linear and to have the properties of a half-wave plate. The coated optical co... | 06/03/2008 |
| 7380960 | Illumination system An illumination system includes a beam splitting unit, a first lamp, a second lamp and a reflective component. The beam splitting unit has a splitting interface. One of the first lamp, the second lamp and the reflective component is disposed at one side of the beam ... | 06/03/2008 |
| 7379242 | Polarization beam splitter and projection apparatus having the same The present invention provides a polarization beam splitter including a multilayer film formed by laminating a first layer having a refractive index in a first range, a second layer having a refractive index in a second range which does not overlap the first range, ... | 05/27/2008 |
| 7372798 | Optical element and optical pickup device An optical element has a dichroic film held between transparent materials which transmits one of first light in a wavelength range of 390 to 425 nm and second light in a wavelength range of 630 to 820 nm and reflects the other light, and a first, a second, a third a... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7369312 | Thin layered micro optics polarization converter A thin optic electro magnetic radiation polarization converter, available in various combinations, used to convert non-polarized radiation into a single polarization state, which may be utilized in many devices requiring polarized radiation. A unique geometric confi... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7369186 | Polarizing beam splitter featuring stacked grating layers and display including the same A polarizing beam splitter includes a polarization splitting layer which includes stacked one-dimensional grating layers. The grating layers can include alternating layers of at least one H layer having an effective refractive index nH for p-polarized lig... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7364302 | Projection display system using multiple light sources and polarizing element for using with same An image projection system has two illumination beams of different colors. A first polarizing beamsplitter (PBS) has first and second input faces. Light of the first color is incident on the first input face and the light of the second color is incident on second in... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7364303 | Image display apparatus At least one exemplary embodiment is directed to an image display apparatus, which can include multiple color combining elements, multiple light modulating elements, and a projection optical system, operatively connected to reduce the effects of ghost light. ... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7362943 | Polymeric photonic crystals with co-continuous phases An optical element is formed by co-extruding to have an arrangement of polymer scattering fibers within a polymer matrix. The scattering fibers lie substantially parallel to a first axis. The scattering fibers are arranged at positions across the cross-section of th... | 04/22/2008 |
| RE40251 | Optical element, polarization illumination device, and projector Two polarization conversion element arrays are disclosed. Each polarization conversion element array is composed of a plurality of polarization conversion elements for converting light incident upon the polarization conversion element array to a linearly polarized l... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7362504 | Miniature circulator devices and methods for making the same Miniature optical devices, including circulator array devices, are fabricated using thin film coating technology. A typical optical device includes two refraction elements arranged opposite each other along a propagation axis and coupled on opposite ends to first an... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7362507 | Polarizing beam splitter A polarizing beam splitter is disclosed that includes a first prism, a second prism, and a reflective polarizing film disposed between the first prism and the second prism. The first prism comprises a first polymeric material, and has a first outer curved surface an... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7360899 | Beamsplitting structures and methods in optical systems Various embodiments involving structures and methods for illumination can be employed, for example, in projectors, head-mounted displays, helmet-mounted displays, back projection TVs, flat panel displays as well as other optical systems. Certain embodiments may incl... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7359584 | Polarization beam separator and combiner The present invention relates to a device for use in a fiber optic system that may be a communication system, a sensing system or other system using guided-wave optical components. Reducing the number of lenses required to couple the waveguides and the free-space pa... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7357510 | Projection-type 3-D image display device using single projector A projection-type 3-D image display device includes a single display element, a polarization conversion switch, a first image shifter, a second image shifter, a projection lens unit, a mirrored light tunnel, and a screen unit. The screen unit includes an image separ... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7359119 | Optical arrangement for pre-processing primary illumination light An optical arrangement for pre-processing primary illumination light is proposed, wherein a provided spectral processing section (P) comprises a multi-prism assembly (10) consisting of a plurality of sequentially/consecutively connected prisms (21, 22)... | 04/15/2008 |
