Multi-aperture imaging system
February 18, 2017. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.Patent ReferencesAdaptive imaging telescope with nonlinear quadrant sensing and electro-optical phase shifting Sensor system for detecting wavefront distortion in a return beam of light Wavefront sensing by phase retrieval Phase-matching arrayed telescopes with a corner-cube-bridge metering rod Dual shear wavefront sensor Compact continuous wave wavefront sensor Optical differential tilt sensor High resolution telescope including an array of elemental telescopes aligned along a common axis and supported on a space frame with a pivot at its geometric center Apparatus for sensing wavefront aberration Piston error estimation method for segmented aperture optical systems while observing arbitrary unknown extended scenes InventorsAssigneeApplicationNo. 801631 filed on 02/18/1997US Classes:359/399, Telescope248/346.3, Knockdown or collapsible (i.e., reduced in volume)359/419With plural optical axesExaminersPrimary: Spyrou, CassandraAssistant: Robinson, Mark A. Attorney, Agent or FirmInternational ClassG02B 23//00AbstractA multi-aperture imaging system for continuous dwell imaging of complex extended scenes which are not required to contain localized point sources. The multi-aperture imaging system includes a plurality of subaperture telescopes, each of which collect image data of an instantaneous field of view of an extended object scene within a field of regard of the imaging system. The image data collected by each subaperture telescope is transferred by respective optical delay paths to a beam combiner which combines all the image data in coherent fashion to form a single high resolution image of said object scene at a focal plane of the beam combiner. The subaperture telescopes are optically phased using phase diversity techniques which include using a phase diversity sensor located at the focal plane of the beam combiner to detect wavefront errors in the collected images. A phase controller is used to make phase and tilt adjustments to moveable mirror in the optical delay paths of the respective subaperture telescopes to ensure that the path length travelled by the collected image data from each subaperture telescope is maintained equal. The subaperture telescopes are supported on a deployable Y-shaped framework which folds up for compact stowage within a satellite launch canister. The subaperture telescopes are spaced in a redundant array sufficient to provide a desired uniform coverage of the spatial frequencies of a modulation transfer function (MTF) of the imaging system.Other References
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