Hughes Aircraft Company

Moxtek, Inc.

Raytheon Company

Hughes Electronics Corporation

Other

Victor Company of Japan, Limited

Hoya Corporation

John E Gunther

Douglas P Hansen

Ronald T Smith

John E Wreede

Chungte W Chen

Kevin H Yu

Ronald George Hegg

Michael J Virgadamo

William B King

James E Scott

William C Hoffman

William R Lichty

Shintaro Nakagaki

Tetsuji Suzuki

Jan Grinberg

Ryusaku Takahashi

Mao-Jin J Chern

James A Arns

Khin Swe Yin

Richard W Nichols

Richard B Upper

Jerry L Mulder

Andrew J Daiber

David T Wilson

Dennis D Hansen

Serdar Yeralan

Lillian Yin

The invention provides a method of processing an optical signal having a first amplitude frequency or gain frequency profile so as to produce a desired second amplitude frequency or gain frequency profile, the method comprising subjecting the signal to action by a plurality of chirped gratings each of which is designed to act upon a respective wavelength band of said signal and to remove at least a part of the radiation in said band and operating the gratings such that the proportion of the radiation removed from the respective band is such as to alter the first profile to the second profile within that band. The electrodes define a plurality of adjacent independently adjustable filter segments along the waveguide. Each filter segment functions over a specific range of wavelengths, where the center-to-center wavelength difference between adjacent segments and the wavelength bandwidth of each segment are defined in large part by the chirp in the grating. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the grating is divided into two consecutive chirp regions, both of which span the desired wavelength band. The first chirp region is divided into a first group of independently adjustable filter segments. The second chirp region is divided into a second group of independently adjustable filter segments spaced such that the central wavelengths of the second group of filter segments are interleaved between the center wavelengths of the first group of filter segments a set of overlapping filter functions that can be used to create very smooth attenuation versus wavelength profiles.

Planar lightwave filter device

A polarizing device has an arrangement of generally parallel elements disposed in an unpolarized source light beam for transmitting polarizations perpendicular to the elements and reflecting polarizations parallel to the elements. The elements may be disposed at substantially any incidence angle and may reflect the reflected beam at substantially any angle. The elements may be disposed on a substrate or embedded in a substrate. The elements may be disposed in a curved layer. The substrate may also have a curved surface. A polarizer apparatus may also have a mirror or the like for redirecting or recapturing the transmitted or reflected beam so they have similar directions or are directed to a common area. The device may also have a wave plate or the like for changing the polarization of the transmitted or reflected beams so they have the same polarization.

Polarizer apparatus for producing a generally polarized beam of light

A situation awareness viewing device, typically in the form of a head-mounted display device, includes a polarizing beam splitter made of a cube of a material transparent to light and having an index of refraction greater than 1, and a wire grid polarizer lying within the cube on a cube-diagonal plane extending between two diagonally opposed edges of the cube. The polarizing beam splitter has a first optical axis extending from a first face of the cube toward an opposing second face of the cube and lying at an angle of 45 degrees to the cube-diagonal plane, and a second optical axis extending from a third face of the cube toward an opposing fourth face of the cube and lying at an angle of 45 degrees to the cube-diagonal plane, the second optical axis being perpendicular to the first optical axis. The device further includes an external polarizer external to the cube on the first optical axis and disposed to intercept light incident upon the first face along the first optical axis, an image source external to the cube and disposed to send a display image incident upon the third face along the second optical axis, a quarter-wave plate external to the cube and disposed to intercept a beam of light traveling along the second optical axis and passing out of the cube through the fourth face, and a mirror external to the cube and disposed to reflect light passing through the quarter-wave plate back through the quarter-wave plate and to the fourth face.

Low-observability, wide-field-of-view, situation awareness viewing device

A collimating optical device utilizes a reflective beamsplitter in the form of a linear polarizing beamsplitter to achieve a wide field of view. One form of the wide-angle collimating optical device includes, in order from an image source, a first absorptive linear polarizer; a first quarter-wave plate; an optical doublet including a piano-concave singlet, a plano-convex singlet whose convex surface has the same curvature as the curvature of the concave surface, and a first reflective beamsplitter joining the concave surface of the plano-concave singlet to the convex surface of the plano-convex singlet; a second quarter-wave plate; and a second reflective beamsplitter. One of the reflective beamsplitters is a linear polarizing beamsplitter, most preferably a wire grid polarizer.

Wide-angle collimating optical device

An optical polarizer device that reflects light of one polarization over a controlled angular range, and improved twisted nematic liquid crystal display devices incorporating the same, is comprised of a grid of conductive elements supported on a textured substrate such that light of one polarization is transmitted through the grid while light of the orthogonal polarization is reflected. The angular distribution of the reflected light is determined by the texture of the substrate. Liquid crystal display embodiments include a configuration intended exclusively for front illumination by ambient light and a configuration which may use either front-illumination or back illumination by an internal light source.

Reflective optical polarizer device with controlled light distribution and liquid crystal display incorporating the same

A polarizing device has an arrangement of generally parallel elements disposed in an unpolarized source light beam for transmitting polarizations perpendicular to the elements and reflecting polarizations parallel to the elements. The elements may be disposed at substantially any incidence angle and may reflect the reflected beam at substantially any angle. The elements may be disposed on a substrate or embedded in a substrate. The elements may be disposed in a curved layer. The substrate may also have a curved surface. A polarizer apparatus may also have a mirror or the like for redirecting or recapturing the transmitted or reflected beam so they have similar directions or are directed to a common area. The apparatus may also have a wave plate or the like for changing the polarization of the transmitted or reflected beams so they have the same polarization.

A color filter which, in a reflection type color picture projector using a polarized light component as a projection light, improve the utilization factor of light and a color picture display device using the same color filter are provided. The color filter 3 using a transmission type hologram diffracts and spectroscopically separates P polarized light components related to respective primary colors and condenses them to pixel electrodes 13r, 13g, and 13b on the side of an LCD panel 1. A reflection light which is modulated by an optical modulator 16 on the side of the LCD panel 1 and becomes S polarized light component is incident on the color filter 3. The color filter 3 transmits the S polarized light component and uses it as the projection light. Since the color filter 3 can diffract a P polarized light component at diffraction efficiency of about 100% while restricting the diffraction efficiency of S polarized light component to about 3%, which is substantially advantageous compared with diffraction of S polarized light component, the utilization factor of light can be improved

Color filter and color picture display device using the same

Reflective optical polarizer device with controlled light distribution

A dual mode liquid crystal display device has a liquid crystal material disposed between a first polarizer and a second reflective polarizer. A light source is disposed behind the second polarizer and an absorbing means is disposed behind the second polarizer in front of the light source. The reflective polarizer may be a wire grid polarizer and reflects one polarization back towards the front of the display to create a bright image. The other polarization is passed by the reflective polarizer and absorbed by the absorbing means. The absorbing means may be a third polarizer and a wave plate for rotating the polarization passed by the second polarizer before absorbing it so that the second and third polarizers pass the same polarization so that the light produced by the light source may also pass through to the front of the display. The absorbing means may also be a removable sheet of absorbing material. A controller selectively activates the liquid crystal to selectively alter the polarization of the light as it passes through. A switch may reverse the manner in which the controller activates the liquid crystal so that the same pattern of bright and dark images is maintained when the display switches between an ambient illumination mode and an internal illumination mode.

Dual mode reflective/transmissive liquid crystal display apparatus

A wide field-of-view simulator heads-up display provides images to a user along an optical axis. A HUD CRT provides images of a predetermined design wavelength, while rear projection screen CRTs provide out-of-window scenery that does not contain the predetermined design wavelength. A curved holographic combiner is mounted on the optical axis with a reflective hologram on a concave surface covered with a urethane overcoat. The convex surface has an antireflective coating. A tilted beamsplitter cooperates with a folding mirror in a relay optical system for providing a virtual image of the HUD CRT for reflection from the holographic combiner.

Wide FOV simulator heads-up display with selective holographic reflector

A holographic optical filter separates broadband electromagnetic radiation into spectral components corresponding to different spectral regions and then images this radiation onto pixels of a display. It includes two layers of holographic optical elements that are sensitive to each of these spectral regions. The holographic optical elements generally transmit radiation outside of their bandpass but can diffract radiation falling within it. The filter is well suited for display applications and can be used in either a reflective or transmissive mode.

Holographic color filters for display applications, and operating method

A hologram decal structure including a photopolymer hologram layer having hologram fringes recorded therein, a transparent pressure sensitive adhesive layer disposed on a first surface of the photopolymer hologram layer, and a transparent urethane coating disposed on a second surface of the photopolymer hologram layer, and techniques for making the hologram decal.

Photopolymer holographic decal for plastic substrate

A stoplight system that includes a light source for providing a light output, and an array of non-overlapping lenslets comprised of first lenslets and second lenslets, each first lenslet configured to refract a portion of the light output of the light source into a first predetermined angular field comprising a central angular region having vertical and horizontal extent, and each second lenslet configured to refract a portion of the light output of the light source into a second predetermined angular field comprising first and second peripheral angular regions that are horizontally on either side of the central angular region, whereby the portions of the light output of the light source that are refracted by the first and second lenslets form stoplight illumination.

Growing community of inventors

Torrance, CA, United States of America

John E Gunther