Did You Know...
...that Thomas Edison's patent application on his phonograph was approved by the Patent Office in just seven weeks? In contrast, it took Gordon Gould, the inventor of the laser, 30 years to obtain his patent -- finally awarded in 1988!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7463350 | Method and apparatus for detecting defects of a sample using a dark field signal and a bright field signal Disclosed is a method and apparatus for inspecting defects of patterns of a sample at high speed and with high sensitivity while damage of the sample arising from high-power pulsed light is reduced. Light emitted from a pulsed laser light source is transmitted throu... | 12/09/2008 |
| 7463361 | Optical apparatus having a polarization splitter and multiple interferometers A passive optical system substantially simultaneously separates light received at an optical input into three or more output light beams on optical outputs. The output light beams may have intensities that are proportional to intensities of optical projections of th... | 12/09/2008 |
| 7463360 | Optical resonator gyro with integrated external cavity beam generator Methods and apparatus are provided for determining the rotational rate of an optical gyro. An optical gyro comprises at least one substrate, a multi-frequency light source (MFLS) mounted on the substrate, and a resonator coupled to the MFLS. The MFLS is configured t... | 12/09/2008 |
| 7460243 | Measuring apparatus sensitive to rotational but not translational or vibrational movement A measuring apparatus and method which is sensitive to rotational but not translational or vibrational movement. The magnitude of an applied rotational force is determined based upon interference patterns created from light reflected from an interferometric prism po... | 12/02/2008 |
| 7453576 | Method and system for calibrating a fiber optic gyroscope According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for calibrating a fiber optic gyroscope is provided. A method is provided for calibrating a fiber optic gyroscope. First and second portions of light from a first light source are propagated through a fiber ... | 11/18/2008 |
| 7453577 | Apparatus and method for inspecting a patterned part of a sample An inspection apparatus is disclosed having an radiation system configured to provide an radiation beam, a beamnsplitter configured to create, from the radiation beam, a first illumination beam and a second illumination beam directed to a planar reference part of a ... | 11/18/2008 |
| 7453575 | Spectrometer including a plurality of spectrally diverse filters each outputting multiple discrete wavelength peaks, and associated methods A spectrometer for use with a desired wavelength range includes an array of filters. Each filter outputs at least two non-contiguous wavelength peaks within the desired wavelength range. The array of filters is spectrally diverse over the desired wavelength range, a... | 11/18/2008 |
| 7450245 | Method and apparatus for measuring high-bandwidth electrical signals using modulation in an optical probing system A system for probing a DUT is provided, the system comprising a tunable or CW laser source, a modulator for modulating the output of the laser source, a beam optics designed to point a probing beam at a designated location on the DUT, optical detector for detecting ... | 11/11/2008 |
| 7446879 | Solid-state gyrolaser stabilised by acousto-optic devices The field of the invention is that of solid-state laser gyros. One of the major problems inherent in this technology is that the optical cavity of this type of laser gyro is by nature highly unstable. To reduce this instability, controlled optical are introduced int... | 11/04/2008 |
| 7446881 | System, apparatus, and method for determining temperature/thickness of an object using light interference measurements A measuring apparatus including a light source that emits light with a wavelength that allows the light to be transmitted through and reflected at each measurement target, a splitter that splits the light from the light source into measurement light and reference li... | 11/04/2008 |
| 7446880 | Method and apparatus for measuring and monitoring optical properties based on a ring-resonator A method and apparatus for performing refractive index, birefringence and optical activity measurements of a material such as a solid, liquid, gas or thin film. The apparatus has an optical ring-resonator with a closed optical path that constitutes a cavity. A sampl... | 11/04/2008 |
| 7443511 | Integrated plane mirror and differential plane mirror interferometer system A lithographic interferometer system includes a beam generating mechanism, mirrors which reflect those beams, and detection devices configured to detect an interference pattern of overlapping reflected beams. The beam generating mechanism includes a beam-splitter, w... | 10/28/2008 |
| RE40551 | Device for measuring translation, rotation or velocity via light beam interference The device for measuring translation, rotation or velocity includes at least a light source, a light detector, a first grating and a second grating, the first grating being mobile relative to the second grating. A incident beam reaches the first grating where it is ... | 10/28/2008 |
| 7440114 | Off-axis paraboloid interferometric mirror with off focus illumination An off axis paraboloid mirror is used to provide object illumination in an interferometric imaging system. The light from an object illumination light source diverges from a point apart from the focus point of the paraboloid, proceeds to the parabolic mirror surface... | 10/21/2008 |
| 7433058 | System and method for simultaneous 3D height measurements on multiple sides of an object An interferometric method for determining a height profile of regions of the surface area of an object or of several objects, wherein the regions are substantially in different planes, is presented. The optical path of at least one portion of intensity coming from o... | 10/07/2008 |
| 7433049 | Multi-axis interferometer with procedure and data processing for mirror mapping In general, in one aspect, the invention features methods that include locating a plurality of alignment marks on a moveable stage, interferometrically measuring a position of a measurement object along an interferometer axis for each of the alignment mark locations... | 10/07/2008 |
| 7417741 | Transmissive scanning delay line for optical coherence tomography A scanningdelay line for use in optical coherence tomography apparatus has a tiltable mirror, and optical convergence means for converging light incident, a dispersive element for dispersing light incident, and an optical-redirector for changing the direction of an ... | 08/26/2008 |
| 7411682 | Real time high speed high resolution hyper-spectral imaging Real time high speed high resolution hyper-spectral imaging. (a) electromagnetic radiation collimating element (16), collimating electromagnetic radiation (44) emitted by objects (12) in a scene or a sample (14); (b) optical interferomete... | 08/12/2008 |
| 7411683 | Electric field measurement of optical waveforms Time magnification and heterodyning are combined to allow the single-shot characterization of the electric field of optical waveforms. The electric field of the source under test is obtained by Fourier processing of the magnified temporal intensity of the source het... | 08/12/2008 |
| 7408651 | Method and system for wavefront measurements of an optical system A wavefront measurement system includes a source of electromagnetic radiation. An illumination system delivers the electromagnetic radiation to an object plane. A source of a diffraction pattern is in the object plane. A projection optical system projects the diffra... | 08/05/2008 |
| 7408652 | Device and method for the optical measurement of an optical system by using an immersion fluid A device for the optical measurement of an optical system, in particular an optical imaging system, is provided. The device includes at least one test optics component arranged on an object side or an image side of the optical system. An immersion fluid is adjacent ... | 08/05/2008 |
| 7403291 | Method of calculating two-dimensional wavefront aberration An adjusting method measures a wavefront aberration in a first direction of a target optical system and a wavefront aberration in a second direction different from the first direction of the target optical system, and calculates a first correction value and a second... | 07/22/2008 |
| 7397569 | Method and system for interferometric height measurement A system and method for interferometric height measurement. A first coherent light beam and a second coherent light beam is generated. At least the first coherent light beam is reflected from a first region into a first return beam and the second coherent light beam... | 07/08/2008 |
| 7394547 | Fiber-optic assay apparatus based on phase-shift interferometry Apparatus and method for detecting the presence or amount or rate of binding of an analyte in a sample solution is disclosed. The apparatus includes an optical assembly having first and second reflecting surfaces separated by a distance “d” greater than 50 nm, w... | 07/01/2008 |
| 7388668 | Phase sensitive heterodyne coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering micro-spectroscopy and microscopy A system is disclosed for detecting a non-linear coherent field induced in a sample volume. The system includes a first source for generating a first electromagnetic field at a first frequency, a second source for generating a second electromagnetic field at a secon... | 06/17/2008 |
| 7388670 | LASER gyro readout signal stabilization in high vibration environments A method of stabilizing beam power in a ring LASER gyroscope (RKG) during high vibration is provided. The method comprises modifying an electrical signal output from an RLG photodetector to generate a direct current (DC) feedback signal, the DC levels of the feedbac... | 06/17/2008 |
| 7388671 | Polarizing cavity for RFOG and method for sensing rotation rate of resonator Methods and apparatus are provided for attenuating polarization errors in ring resonators of fiber optic gyros. A ring resonator is provided having first and second resonance frequencies and comprising an optical fiber coil having a hollow core and first and second ... | 06/17/2008 |
| 7379191 | Optical MEMS wavefront diagnostic transceivers and receiver A combination interferometer (ifo) inspection device is provided which includes a Twyman-Green (T-G) ifo optically coupled to a Mach-Zehnder (M-Z) ifo. MEMS and MOEMS versions permit substantial reduction in size and weight to permit permanently embedding an inspect... | 05/27/2008 |
| 7375820 | Interference measuring apparatus for detecting a plurality of stable phase difference signals Interference measuring apparatus having an optical system for dividing a coherent light beam into two light beams, and causing the divided two light beams to pass along discrete optical paths. The light beams are made into linearly polarized light beams orthogonal t... | 05/20/2008 |
| 7372576 | System and method for generating beams of light using an anisotropic acousto-optic modulator A light source system includes a beam source generating a first input beam of light with first and second beam components. The first component has a first linear polarization and a first frequency. The second component has a second linear polarization and a second f... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7372574 | System and method for stabilizing light sources in resonator gyro Methods and apparatus are provided for stabilizing laser light sources of a resonator gyro. A resonator gyro comprises a first light source configured to produce a first input light, a second light source configured to produce a second input light, a resonator coupl... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7369247 | Sensing coil assembly and method for attaching a sensing coil in a fiber optic gyroscope A sensing coil assembly and method for attaching a sensing coil to a support structure are provided for a fiber optic gyroscope. The method comprises affixing a preformed adhesive to a mating surface of a mounting structure, and coupling an inner surface of the sens... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7369228 | Compact spectrometer The present invention is directed to a spectrometer in which the electrical and optical components are connected to one another in a compact construction. A minimal expenditure on assembly and adjustment is achieved through a small quantity of individual parts. The ... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7369245 | Sensing coil assembly and method for attaching a sensing coil in a fiber optic gyroscope A sensing coil assembly and method for attaching a sensing coil to a support structure are provided for a fiber optic gyroscope. The method comprises affixing a first support surface of the support structure to a first mounting surface of the sensing coil via a firs... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7369246 | Method for winding sensing coils and sensing coil for fiber optic gyroscopes A sensing coil is provided for optically guiding counter-propagating light beams in a fiber optic gyroscope. The sensing coil comprises a plurality of layers of an optical fiber having a winding direction. The plurality of layers comprises inner layers, middle layer... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7362443 | Optical gyro with free space resonator and method for sensing inertial rotation rate Methods and apparatus are provided for a low cost optical gyro with a free space closed optical path. A ring resonator comprises a substrate and reflectors formed or placed on the substrate. The reflectors comprise a closed optical path and are configured to direct ... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7359062 | High speed spectral domain functional optical coherence tomography and optical doppler tomography for in vivo blood flow dynamics and tissue structure A system for tomographic imaging includes a source of at least partially coherent radiation, a frequency-swept laser source and an interferometer. The radiation in the interferometer is phase modulated at a modulation frequency for elimination of DC and autocorrelat... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7359064 | Quantum positioning systems and methods Included in this disclosure is a quantum positioning system (QPS) that includes a corner cube reflector and a plurality of baselines. Each baseline may include an interferometer, which may include a photon source, a beam splitter, and a photon detector. The interfer... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7355711 | Method for detecting an end-point for polishing a material An optical surface analysis system for scanning the surface of a (silicon) wafer and detect if any residual material is still on the wafer surface in order to determine an appropriate end-point in a polishing process. An Optical Surface Analyzer (OSA), of the presen... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7352472 | Lithographic apparatus, device manufacturing method, and method for determining z-displacement The present invention provides an apparatus and method for determining displacement along the z-direction of an object, which is fixed in a holder of an apparatus and is illuminated by a beam of radiation, the beam being provided by the apparatus and having an optic... | 04/01/2008 |
