Hughes Electronics Corporation

Hughes Aircraft Company

Khoon-Cheng Lim

Tsung-Yuan Hsu

Shin-Tson Wu

J David Margerum

Chiung-Sheng Wu

John H Erdmann

An imaging system that can tolerate high intensity optical beams without a reduction in the system's field-of-view, comprises an imager, a fiber array positioned at the image plane of the imager, a sensor array positioned at the output end of the fiber array, a panel display positioned in proximity of the fiber array and an image processor for electronically processing the information from the sensor array.

Laser-hardened eye protection goggles

An optical system is provided that produces bright, high contrast head-up display images which are not adversely affected by the direct exposure to sunlight of the system's virtual image source. The optical system comprises a light source system which projects a focused light beam to a segmented, electronically-addressed polymer-dispersed liquid crystal ('PDLC')-type film, which serves as a primary image source. Selected segments of the image source are made transmissive while other selected segments scatter light. Accordingly, the portions of the focused light beam incident to transmissive segments are transmitted to form a real image, while the balance of the focused light beam is scattered. A stray light-blocking means, such as a lens/aperture combination, is employed to block the scattered light. The real image is projected onto an unsegmented, electronically-addressed PDLC-type film serving as an image screen. The image screen is the head-up display image source and replaces other emissive light sources in conventional head-up displays. The PDLC-type image screen is unsegmented so that there are no display elements to provide false information upon exposure to sunlight. Moreover, the image screen is highly forward scattering, so that stray sunlight incident to the image screen is forward scattered in the direction opposite to the image source, thereby preventing the reflection of sunlight into viewers' eyes. The light transmitted through the PDLC-type image screen comprises the head-up display image, which is then projected by a projection means, such as a concave mirror or lens, to the desired location for viewing as a virtual image.

Dual PDLC-projection head-up display

Low-cost, thin-layer liquid crystal (LC) millimeter wave (MMW) phase modulators and phased array antennae are provided based on several types of open transmission strip-line, parallel-line, and ridge-guide configurations in which surface-aligned LCs are modulated reversibly with small applied electrical fields. Incorporated properly in the open transmission lines, the LC layer can modulate the propagating MMW with nearly its full value of birefringence. The modulator comprises: (a) at least one transmission line supported on a first substrate; (b) a dielectric medium comprising a liquid crystal or a liquid crystal composite and contacting the substrate and the transmission line(s), the liquid crystal or a liquid crystal composite (e.g., polymer-dispersed liquid crystal; PDLC) having an electrically controllable dielectric permittivity; (c) a second substrate disposed opposite the first substrate and separated therefrom by a distance to accommodate the LC or LC composite; (d) means for sealing the LC or LC composite between the two substrates; (e) a source of millimeter waves electrically connected to the transmission line(s) for transmission therealong; and (f) means for varying the dielectric permittivity of the LC or LC composite to thereby modulate the transmission.

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Agoura, CA, United States of America

Khoon-Cheng Lim