Famous Patents
3M employee and church chorister Art Fry needed something to temporarily mark pages in his hymnal. He was in luck because his colleague, Spencer Silver, accidentally developed a glue that was too weak for other purposes. After initially discouraging consumer response, Post-it Notes became a hit in 1979.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8174769 | Beamsplitters with offset compensation Embodiments of the present invention are directed to beamsplitters that include optical elements to correct for beam offset. In one embodiment, a beamsplitter includes a first plate having two approximately parallel and opposing planar surfaces and a partially refle... | 05/08/2012 |
| 8116008 | System and method for lens performance optimization using electronic aberration correction A method for optimizing cost and performance in a lens assembly is disclosed. The method relaxes the constraints of optically correcting lateral chromatic aberration and distortion on the lens assembly and instead electronically corrects for lateral chromatic aberra... | 02/14/2012 |
| 8014073 | Thin film coated optical hybrid An absorptive coating is in contact with an optical beam splitter such that a signal beam and a reference beam incident on the beam splitter from opposite sides are can be combined to produce two interference beams having a phase difference of about ... | 09/06/2011 |
| 7995280 | Projection exposure system, beam delivery system and method of generating a beam of light A beam delivery system of a projection exposure system comprises a laser generating a beam of laser light from a plurality of longitudinal laser modes in a cavity, wherein light generated by a single longitudinal laser mode has an average line width λlat... | 08/09/2011 |
| 7986463 | Beam blocking and combining optic A beam blocking and combining optic comprising a wedged optically transparent substrate with a hard dielectric coating applied to a beam combining side of the substrate. The coating has a high reflectance at a laser wavelength and high transmittance at visible wavel... | 07/26/2011 |
| 7864433 | Free-space optical hybrid An exemplary optical hybrid includes a 50/50 un-polarized beam splitter, a folding prism, a beam shifter, a spacer and a phase shifter such that from an input S-beam (signal) and an L-beam (reference), four outputs, S+L, S−L, S+jL and S−jL, are produced. The pha... | 01/04/2011 |
| 7859762 | Aberration correction apparatus An aberration correction apparatus comprising a liquid crystal device which includes a first electrode layer that is formed with regions divided concentrically, a second electrode layer that is formed with regions divided concentrically, and a liquid crystal that is... | 12/28/2010 |
| 7859761 | Illumination system An illumination system including a coherent light source and a speckle-reducing module is provided. The coherent light source is adopted for providing a light beam. The speckle-reducing module is disposed at an optical path of the light beam. The speckle-reducing mo... | 12/28/2010 |
| 7764433 | Method and system for correcting optical aberrations, including widefield imaging applications A system and method for correcting optical aberrations in optical devices, such as wide-field microscopes, optical tweezers and optical media devices, such as DVD drives. The system uses adaptive optics to correct optical aberrations, such as spherical and space-var... | 07/27/2010 |
| 7679830 | Optical systems utilizing multiple phase filters to increase misfocus tolerance An optical imaging system includes optics for imaging a wavefront of electromagnetic radiation to form an image at a detector. The system also includes a plurality of optical phase filters. Each of the phase filters alters phase of the wavefront. The phase filters c... | 03/16/2010 |
| 7672056 | Wavefront correction system A wavefront correction system using a dual frequency liquid crystal spatial light modulator to vary phase relationships of a wavefront is disclosed. A light beam from the dual frequency liquid crystal spatial light modulator can be split into a reference beam and a ... | 03/02/2010 |
| 7593161 | Apparatus and method for extended depth of field imaging An extended depth of field is achieved by a computational imaging system that combines a multifocal imaging subsystem for producing a purposefully blurred intermediate image with a digital processing subsystem for producing a recovered image having an extended depth... | 09/22/2009 |
| 7573641 | Free-space optical hybrid An exemplary optical hybrid includes a 50/50 un-polarized beam splitter, a folding prism, a beam shifter, a spacer and a phase shifter such that from an input S-beam (signal) and an L-beam (reference), four outputs, S+L, S−L, S+jL, S−jL, are produced. The phase ... | 08/11/2009 |
| 7542211 | Image-forming optical system A high-performance image-forming optical system made compact and thin by folding an optical path using reflecting surfaces arranged to minimize the number of reflections. The image-forming optical system has a single prism. When image-side three surfaces of the pris... | 06/02/2009 |
| 7529029 | Polarizing beam splitter A polarizing beam splitter that includes at least one prism, and a reflective polarizing film. The prism comprises a first polymeric material, and has at least one curved outer surface and an incident surface, where the reflective polarizing film is disposed adjacen... | 05/05/2009 |
| 7474467 | Ultrashort pulse compressor A pulse compressor. In one embodiment, the pulse compressor comprises an optical medium adapted for receiving a beam of light in an incident optical path and dispersing it into its constituent spectral colors to form a dispersed beam of light in an output optical pa... | 01/06/2009 |
| 7443593 | Wavefront correction system A wavefront correction system using a dual frequency liquid crystal spatial light modulator to vary phase relationships of a wavefront is disclosed. A light beam from the dual frequency liquid crystal spatial light modulator can be split into a reference beam and a ... | 10/28/2008 |
| 7438480 | Optical module, optical transceiver, and optical joint sleeve An optical module 1 comprises a first optical element F1, a first light receiving subassembly PD1, a second optical element F2, a second light receiving subassembly PD2, a light emitting subassembly LD3 for generating light,... | 10/21/2008 |
| 7433290 | Complex objective lens, optical head, optical information apparatus, computer, optical disk player, car navigation system, optical disk recorder, and optical disk server A complex objective lens composed of a hologram and an objective lens, capable of realizing stable and high-precision compatible reproducing/recording of a BD with a base thickness of about 0.1 mm for a blue light beam (wavelength λ1) and a DVD with a base t... | 10/07/2008 |
| 7388714 | Independent focus compensation for a multi-axis imaging system A multiple-axis imaging system having optical elements whose optimal image positions can be individually adjusted, comprising a plurality of optical array elements having respective optical axes and being individually disposed with respect to one another to image re... | 06/17/2008 |
| 7362520 | Device for the low-deformation mounting of a rotationally asymmetric optical element A low-deformation mounting device of a rotationally asymmetric optical element, particularly an optical element in a projection lens used in semiconductor lithography. Said optical element is mounted in a frame and is provided with at least three connection surfaces... | 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 |
| 7358998 | Image switching apparatus providing an optical compensator An image switching apparatus for an electronic camera. The electronic camera has a lens, an image sensor and a viewfinder. The image switching apparatus includes a housing, an optical assembly and a reciprocating driving device. The housing is disposed between the l... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7355795 | Head-up display device with curved optical surface having total reflection A display device for displaying information is provided with an optical system for guiding the light of the display device to the eye, the optical system having, in the order in the proceeding direction of the light, an entrance face for receiving the light, a curve... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7327508 | Display device using light modulator and having improved numerical aperture of after-edge lens system A display device using a light modulator and having an improved numerical aperture (NA) of an after-edge lens system is disclosed. The display device includes an illumination lens, a diffractive light modulator, an NA improvement unit, a filter system and a projecti... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7324271 | Laser-scanning microscope with collimator and/or pinhole optics Laser-scanning microscope with at least one detection radiation input, in which an aperture plate is installed in front of the detector, whereby optics with variable transmission lengths and a fixed focal distance is provided for focusing varying wavelengths of the ... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7317578 | Imager to imager relay lens system A lens system for use in a two-stage projection system that relays light output from a first imager on a pixel-by-pixel basis onto a second imager (e.g. an LCOS). The lens system includes a double gauss lens set having a distortion of less than about 0.015% with at ... | 01/08/2008 |
| 7317672 | Optical head An optical head includes the following: a light beam separator (35) that includes substantial interference regions for light that is reflected from an information recording medium and travels in a straight path and ±first-order diffracted light produced by i... | 01/08/2008 |
| 7303286 | Projection display device In a projection display device that is provided with a relay lens for converting flux that is emitted from a light source to a parallel flux for illuminating an image display element (DMD), and a total internal reflection prism for both directing flux that is emitte... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7298535 | Digital situation indicator A personal monitoring system to be worn by an individual in a hazardous situation comprises an enclosed face mask which includes a transparent shield over at least the eves a sensor module secured to the individual which includes a plurality of sensors, a microproce... | 11/20/2007 |
| 7292754 | Compensating interferometer including delay lines with reduced noise Methods and apparatus for reducing noise in optical apparatus comprising a delay line by utilizing a plurality of wavelength specific delay lines to delay an input waveform such as a pulse rather than a single delay line. In a preferred embodiment an apparatus is co... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7283307 | Common aperture vision system An optical device comprises a dichroic beamsplitter for splitting an object beam into a reflected beam having a first waveband and a transmitted beam having a second waveband; an astigmatism-correcting lens element, disposed in the optical path of the transmitted be... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7274628 | Method for correcting influence of thickness unevenness of recording medium, information recording/reproducing apparatus using the same method and optical head unit An optical disk unit of this invention includes a defocus detecting system for detecting a defocus of an objective lens, a thickness unevenness detecting system for detecting a thickness unevenness of a transparent resin layer provided nearest the objective lens of ... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7274522 | Reflective optical system A reflective optical system for projectors comprises a single integral piece of transparent optical molding having at least an incident surface, an exit surface, and two or more internal reflection surfaces between the incident surface and the exit surface, each ref... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7264360 | Scan type display optical system A scan type display optical system is disclosed in which the position and inclination of an image formed by projection light is made variable. The scan type display optical system comprises an optical scanning member for deflecting and scanning light, and a projecti... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7265900 | Inspection system with oblique viewing angle Apparatus for imaging an area of a surface along a viewing angle that is oblique to the surface includes an afocal optical relay, which is adapted to form a tilted initial image of the area by collecting optical radiation from the area along an optical axis oriented... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7262919 | Head-up display device with curved optical surface having total reflection A display device for displaying information is provided with an optical system for guiding the light of the display device to the eye, the optical system having, in the order in the proceeding direction of the light, an entrance face for receiving the light, a curve... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7259912 | Fresnel lens having reduced distortions A display device for displaying images in a rear projection display device is provided. The display device may include, amongst other structure, a screen including a lens portion and a frame portion. A tensioner may be operatively associated with the screen and may ... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7260028 | Method for correcting influence of thickness unevenness of recording medium, information recording/reproducing apparatus using the same method and optical head unit An optical disk unit of this invention includes a defocus detecting system for detecting a defocus of an objective lens, a thickness unevenness detecting system for detecting a thickness unevenness of a transparent resin layer provided nearest the objective lens of ... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7253960 | Head-up display device with rotationally asymmetric curved surface A display device for displaying information is provided with an optical system for guiding the light of the display device to the eye, the optical system having, in the order in the proceeding direction of the light, an entrance face for receiving the light, a curve... | 08/07/2007 |
