The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 04, 2025
Filed:
Jul. 24, 2020
Nederlandse Organisatie Voor Toegepast-natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek Tno, s-Gravenhage, NL;
Stefan Kuiper, 's-Gravenhage, NL;
Martin Paul Alfred Kooper, Rotterdam, NL;
Nederlandse Organisatie voor toegepast-natuurwetenschappelijk onderzoek TNO, 's-Gravenhage, NL;
Abstract
An optical element exchange unit, has a rotatable wheel e.g. with different filters. The wheel has first soft magnetic teeth protruding from a soft magnetic part of the wheel at even angular offset along at least part of a ring around a rotation axis of the wheel. The optical element exchange unit has a stator comprising a first soft magnetic yoke, the first soft magnetic yoke having poles with a first group and second group of at least one second soft magnetic tooth respectively, the second soft magnetic teeth of the first and second group protruding from the poles of the first soft magnetic yoke towards the first soft magnetic teeth and a second soft magnetic yoke, the second soft magnetic yoke having poles with a third group and fourth group of at least one second soft magnetic tooth respectively, the second soft magnetic teeth of the third and fourth group protruding from the poles of the second soft magnetic yoke towards the first soft magnetic teeth. A permanent magnet is magnetically coupled between parts of the first and second soft magnetic yoke. The teeth of the first, second, third and fourth groups are positioned so that, when each tooth of the first group is aligned with its nearest first soft magnetic tooth, each second soft magnetic tooth of the second group is halfway the angular offset between its nearest first soft magnetic teeth, and the second soft magnetic teeth in the third and fourth group are less than half the angular offset in opposite directions from their nearest first soft magnetic teeth.