Itt Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc.

Itt Corporation

Nathan Ray Schlotthober

Mark Alan Bryant

James Hoge Bowen

John Carl Nelson

Harrison Lewis Buchanan, Jr

Joseph N Caserta

Lapthe Chau Flora

Raymond Aguero

Raymond Aquero

Michael S Clamme

Harrison Lewis Buchanan

A battery housing for use with a night vision device. The housing is arranged to carry a single, easily replaceable battery and is carried by an electronic device such as a night vision device.

Single battery housing assembly

An electronic circuit for use in a monocular night vision device for electronically controlling a plurality of components within the device, the device having an objective lens assembly for receiving low intensity light, a variable gain image intensifier tube having a user adjustable variable gain controller external to the tube for adjusting the light intensity level of a visible output image, a single eyepiece lens assembly for viewing the output image from the image intensifier assembly; and a non-metallic housing comprising an upper housing for receiving the objective lens assembly, image intensifier assembly, and eyepiece lens assembly, and a lower housing containing a battery cavity for receiving batteries to power the device. The housing aligns the objective lens assembly with the image intensifier assembly and the eyepiece lens assembly along an optical axis wherein the upper and lower housing are coupled to one another along the optical axis. The electronic circuit comprises a rigid printed circuit board (pcb) located within the lower housing having a plurality of contacts for enabling electronic communication with components mounted thereon and with the variable gain image intensifier tube, the rigid pcb including a pair of contacts in electrical communication with the image intensifier tube for energizing the intensifier tube, and a flexible printed circuit board coupled to the rigid pcb and adaptable to the geometry of the upper and lower housings for electronically interconnecting components located within the upper and lower housings with the rigid pcb, the flexible pcb having a first circuit connection to the image intensifier tube and a second circuit connection to an adjustable potentiometer mounted external to the image intensifier tube on the rigid pcb.

Circuit having a flexible printed circuit board for electronically controlling a night vision device and night vision device including the same

The photocathode of an image intensifier is pulsed ON and OFF at a rate determined by a thyristor or SCR having the anode to cathode path coupled to the photocathode and the gate electrode triggered by a variable resistor, capacitor (RC) circuit to cause the photocathode to draw or conduct current only during the OFF interval of the SCR. During the ON interval of the SCR, the photocathode is OFF or non-conducting, wherein the controlled image intensifier tube exhibits a relatively constant resolution over a wide range of input light input values as from 10.sup.-6 to 10.sup.1 foot-candles.

High light resolution control of an image intensifier tube

Growing community of inventors

Roanoke, VA, United States of America

Nathan Ray Schlotthober