Bae Systems, Inc.

British Aerospace Public Limited Company

Christopher Stace

Craig Daniel Stacey

Henry J White

Leslie Charles Laycock

Peter David Foote

Apparatus and method are disclosed for co-aligning a number of laterally displaced radiation beams from respective radiation source outputs, each beam having a respective waveband. The apparatus comprises a collimating element for receiving each of said radiation beams with respective lateral displacements and a combining element for receiving each of said radiation beams passed by said collimating element. The apparatus further comprises a radiation source mount for positioning the radiation source outputs relative to the collimating element. The method comprises longitudinally positioning the radiation source outputs upon the mount, relative to the collimating element, in dependence upon the waveband of each beam, to cause the radiation beams passed by the combining element to be co-aligned.

Alignment of radiation beams

A method of combining and co-aligning a plurality of radiation beams each having a respective waveband, includes the steps of passing each of said radiation beams to a respective lateral deflector to impart a selected lateral displacement to said beam. Each of said radiation beams with respective imparted lateral displacements is then passed to an optical collimating element which passes said radiation beams to an optical deflecting element which applies a wavelength dependent deflection to the radiation beams. The respective lateral displacements are selected having regard to the waveband of each beam to cause all to exit the optical deflecting element at the same angle so they are co-aligned.

Apparatus and methods for combining and separating multiple beams

Described herein is an apparatus which is, under a range of atmospheric conditions, capable of maintaining the emission of light at a point remote from a light source. Notably, the apparatus is able to heat and distribute a fluid, and by doing so, prevents condensation and ice from forming which could hamper the emission of light. The apparatus comprises a light source and a light emitter, with a light conduit and a fluid conduit running between. A method for using such apparatus is also described.

Heat distribution in a distributed lighting apparatus

An optical cross bar switch assembly includes a first lens device (5) in the form of an array of lenslets (5a) operable to receive light from the input optical fiber array (1) in a manner such that the light from each fiber is received and collimated separately by an associated one of the lenslets (5a) with the collimated light from the array (5) being passed to a fan out grating element (3) which angularly diffracts and replicates the light from the input optical fibers.

Optical cross bar switch assembly

An imaging system for maintaining the intensity of an output image constant, where the output image corresponds to a viewed scene. A focusing device forms an input image of the viewed scene on a variable grating modulation device. The viewed scene is then read from the focusing device and a scene intensity distribution pattern formed of two histograms is formed. One of these histograms is processed to produce an output image which has a constant range of intensity levels as adjusted using one of the intensity level of the one histogram.

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Bristol, United Kingdom

Christopher Stace