Mcdonnell Douglas Corporation

Joseph C Kroutil

Martin Jesse Morris

Miklos Sajben

Jerry T Kegelman

Rodney Lusk

A portable apparatus for uniformly illuminating a detector that includes an array of charge-coupled devices (CCDs) is provided for facilitating calibration of the respective gains of the CCDs. The illumination apparatus includes a housing, such as a cup-shaped housing, which defines an internal cavity and which opens through a first end. The illumination apparatus also includes a light source, such as a photoluminescent sheet, that is disposed within the internal cavity for uniformly illuminating the plurality of CCDs to thereby permit the CCDs to be calibrated. The illumination apparatus is also adapted to be mounted to the detector, such as by means of a mounting ring, in much the same fashion that a camera lens is attached to a camera. As such, the illumination apparatus can be readily mounted to a detector, such as a CCD camera, such that the array of CCDs can be calibrated in an efficient manner in the field, i.e., without requiring the detector to be transported to a laboratory for calibration.

Compact flat-field calibration apparatus

There is provided a high frequency pulse generator having inlet ports for receiving a fluid mass flow rate and output ports that produce a pulse flow rate therefrom by being opened and closed by a chopper wheel. The duty cycle of the generator is controlled by the ratio of the aperture sections of the chopper wheel to the closure sections of the wheel. The housing of the pulse generator may be divided into separate sealed chambers for receiving independent fluid mass flow rates in each chamber and providing independent variable phased pulsed output flow rates.

Pulsed flow generator

An apparatus for measuring the distance between two locations on a surface within a cavity includes a sheath which is inserted into the cavity and a scope which extends through the sheath. Through the scope, one from a remote location may observe the surface as well as reference marks which appear within the field of view on each side of the optical axis. These reference marks are aligned with opposite sides of that which is to be measured on the surface. In addition, the apparatus includes two point sources of light located along opposite sides of the scope with each source being located behind a lens that is presented toward the surface which is observed within the field of view. The lenses project their sources of light into the field of view as rays which come into focus on the surface. Under these conditions it is possible to ascertain the distance between the two regions of the surface at which the reference marks appear; that is the distance between the opposite sides of that which is under observation.

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St. Louis County, MO, United States of America

Joseph C Kroutil