Hrl Laboratories, LLC

Raviv Perahia

Logan D Sorenson

David T Chang

Hung P Nguyen

Lian X Huang

Deborah J Kirby

Richard J Joyce

Matthew J Pelliccione

Randall Lynn Kubena

Shuoqin Wang

Adour Vahe Kabakian

Jeremy Bregman

David L Walter

Joshua A Erbland

Biqin Huang

Amit Madanlal Patel

David W Shahan

Keerti S Kona

Frederic P Stratton

Edward H Chen

Patrick J Webb

Sean M Meenehan

Srikanth S Iyer

Geoffrey P McKnight

Christopher Paul Henry

Tobias A Schaedler

Guillermo A Herrera

Christopher Burton Churchill

Phuong Bui

Kayleigh A Porter

Travis Autry

Chia-Ming “Gavin” Chang

Jonathan Lake

Hung Nguyen

L X Coco Huang

Tracy J Boden

Makena S White

Chia-Ming "Gavin" Chang

A sensor cluster is disclosed comprising a first plurality of side surfaces of a first N-hedron structure, and a second plurality of side surfaces of a second N-hedron structure. A first plurality of a first type of sensor are mounted on the first plurality of side surfaces, and a second plurality of a second type of sensor are mounted on the second plurality of side surfaces. N is greater than three and the first plurality of side surfaces are interleaved with the second plurality of side surfaces.

Double N-hedron sensor cluster

A corner bracket comprising a volume of matter having n pairs of parallel faces, where n is an integer larger than 2; each face of each pair of parallel faces comprising an opening; the openings in the faces of each pair of parallel faces being joined by a cylindrical recess having a longitudinal axis perpendicular to the faces joined by the cylindrical recess; the longitudinal axis of the cylindrical recesses being arranged such that the cylindrical recesses do not intersect each other. The number n can be 3 and the volume of matter can be a cube.

Modular inertial measurement unit and elements for making same

A low-power, chip-scale atomic beam clock is provided that maintains high precision for at least one week at any practical temperature. In some variations, the invention provides a chip-scale atomic beam clock comprising: a micro-optical bench; an atom collimator configured to generate a collimated atomic beam via differential pumping through microchannels; a VCSEL configured to emit laser photons horizontally in the plane of the micro-optical bench; an in-plane lithographically defined diffraction grating configured to split the laser photons into a first photon beam and a second photon beam; in-plane lithographically defined mirrors configured to retroflect the photon beams; in-plane photodetectors configured to detect the photon beams after being retroflected, wherein the first photon beam and the second photon beam interrogate the collimated atomic beam in-plane with the micro-optical bench. The chip-scale atomic beam clocks is capable of maintaining precise positioning, navigation, and timing in case of GPS denial or failure.

Highly stable chip-scale atomic beam clocks using miniaturized atomic beams and monolithic clock chips

A CVG having first and second degenerate resonator modes with each a damping rate; drive circuits for causing the resonator to oscillate in the first and second modes in response to first and second drive signals; first and second sense circuits for generating first and second sense signals in response to the resonator oscillating in the first and second modes; a signal processing circuit having control loops for generating the first and second drive signals based on the first and second sense signals; and first and second damping feedback circuits for generating first and second damping feedback signals proportional to the first and second damping rates; an adding the damping feedback signals to the first and second drive signals.

Continuous online self-calibration for gyroscopes through modulation of damping axes

A resonator includes an anchor, an outer stiffener ring on an outer perimeter of the resonator, and a plurality of curved springs between the anchor and the outer stiffener ring.

High quality factor mems silicon flower-of-life vibratory gyroscope

An angular rate sensor. The sensor includes a Coriolis vibratory gyroscope (CVG) resonator, configured to oscillate in a first normal mode and in a second normal mode; a frequency reference configured to generate a reference signal; and a first phase control circuit. The first phase control circuit is configured to: measure a first phase difference between: a first phase target, and the difference between: a phase of an oscillation of the first normal mode and a phase of the reference signal. The first phase control circuit is further configured to apply a first phase correction signal to the CVG resonator, to reduce the first phase difference. A second phase control circuit is similarly configured to apply a second phase correction signal to the CVG resonator, to reduce a corresponding, second phase difference.

High stability angular sensor

A resonator has a resonator body and a frame at least partially surrounding the resonator body, the resonator body being coupled to the frame by at least one tether. The resonator body, frame and at least one tether comprise silicon carbide. A plurality of interdigitated electrodes are disposed on the silicon carbide resonator body. The resonator body preferably comprises 6H silicon carbide and preferably has a crystalline c-axis oriented generally parallel to a thickness direction of the resonator body.

Piezoelectric single crystal silicon carbide microelectromechanical resonators

A self-calibration method for an accelerometer having a proof mass separated by a gap from a drive electrode and a sense electrode includes initializing the accelerometer to resonate, applying a first bias voltage to the sense electrode and a second bias voltage to the drive electrode to obtain a first scale factor, measuring a first acceleration over a first time interval, swapping the first bias voltage on the sense electrode with the second bias voltage previously on the drive electrode and the second bias voltage on the drive electrode with the first bias voltage previously on the sense electrode so that a bias voltage on the sense electrode is set to the second bias voltage and a bias voltage on the drive electrode is set to the second bias voltage to obtain a second scale factor, measuring a second acceleration over a second time interval, and calculating a true acceleration.

Continuous online self-calibrating resonant FM microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometer

A method of making a SiC resonator includes forming a layer of an oxide material on a relatively thick wafer of SiC; bonding the layer of oxide material on the relatively thick wafer of SiC to a handle wafer having at least an oxide exterior surface, the resulting bond being substantially free of voids; planarizing the relatively thick wafer of SiC to a desired thickness; forming top and bottom electrodes on the wafer of SiC wafer to define a SiC wafer resonator portion; and forming a trench around the top and bottom electrodes, the tench completely penetrating the planarized wafer of SiC around a majority of a distance surrounding said top and bottom electrodes, except for one or more tether regions of the planarized wafer of SiC which remain physically coupled a remaining portion the SiC wafer resonator portion which defines a frame formed of the planarized wafer of SiC surrounding the SiC wafer resonator portion.

Method of fabricating a SiC resonator

A stress isolating interposer includes: an outer pad; an inner pad configured to accommodate a positional sensor is mounted; and a stress isolating structure coupling the outer pad and the inner pad to each other. The outer pad, the stress isolating structure, and the inner pad are a monolithic structure.

Stress isolating interposer and sensor package and method of manufacturing the same

An instrument package for use during the drilling a wellbore. The instrument package includes a plurality of instruments such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers; a computer is configured to determine the current position of the plurality of instruments from a set of measurements produced by the plurality of instruments; and wherein the plurality of instruments are mechanically isolated from a drill head assembly by one or more multi-degree of freedom vibration isolators. The computer preferably has at least two modes different analytical modes of analyzing the set of measurements produced by the plurality of instruments, including a continuous mode and a survey mode, the continuous mode being operational during times that active drilling is occurring and the survey mode being operational during times that the active drilling is not occurring.

Continuous trajectory calculation for directional drilling

A resonant accelerometer includes a proof mass, one or more springs connecting the proof mass to an anchor, and one or more capacitive transduction gaps providing a void or space between the movable proof mass and a corresponding fixed electrode, wherein the static displacement of the proof mass in response to acceleration applied to the anchor modifies the electrostatic stiffness imparted by one or more of the capacitive transduction gaps on the proof mass, resulting in a corresponding change in the resonance frequency of the resonant accelerometer.

Navigational grade resonant MicroElectroMechanical Systems (mems) accelerometer and method of operation

A curved phononic waveguide. In some embodiments, the curved phononic waveguide includes a sheet including a plurality of standard reflectors and a plurality of divergent reflectors. Each of the standard reflectors is associated with a respective grid point of a grid defined by a plurality of intersecting lines, each grid point being a respective intersection of two of a plurality of intersecting lines, the grid being locally periodic to within 5%, and having a local grid spacing. Each of the standard reflectors has a center separated from the respective grid point of the standard reflector by at most 1% of the grid spacing. The divergent reflectors define a waveguide among the standard reflectors, each of the divergent reflectors being an absent reflector or a reflector that is smaller than one of the standard reflectors.

Curved phononic crystal waveguide

A sensor comprising a resonator structure arranged for resonating along a first plane; and at least one sensing electrode arranged on a second plane parallel to said first plane at a predetermined distance of said resonator structure along a direction normal to said first plane.

Disk resonator gyroscope with out-of-plane electrodes

A sensing array includes a plurality of pixels, one pixel of which includes: a sensor, the sensor including a first electrode, a second electrode, and an atomic defect site configured to be excited by light of a first frequency; a light source below the sensor and configured to emit light of the first frequency toward the defect site; and a radio frequency (RF) source below the sensor and configured to provide a first voltage to the first electrode, a second voltage to the second electrode, and an RF signal to the sensor, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a magnitude of a physical parameter by generating a photocurrent corresponding to a magnitude of a physical parameter and a differential between the first and second voltages, when excited by the light of the first frequency and affected by the RF signal.

Growing community of inventors

Agoura Hills, CA, United States of America

Raviv Perahia