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:
Dec. 07, 1982
Filed:
Sep. 15, 1980
Cecil W Campbell, Huntsville, AL (US);
Robert B Owen, Huntsville, AL (US);
Abstract
An optical manifold transforms a collimated beam, such as a laser beam, into a plurality of parallel beams having uniform intensity or having a desired intensity ratio. The manifold (10) comprises an optical substrate (12) coated on its rear surface (13) with a fully reflective layer (14) and on its front surface (15) with a partially reflecting layer (20) having a reflectivity gradient. An input collimated beam (30) entering the rear surface (13) and impinging on the front surface (14) will be reflected, multiple (32-40) between the front and rear surfaces producing a plurality of parallel beams (42, 44, 46, 48) that emerge from the front surface. The intensities of the emerging beams will have a relationship that depends on the reflectivity (R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3, R.sub.4, and R.sub.5) of the front surface at the points where the beams emerge. By properly selecting the reflectivity gradient, the emerging beams will have uniform intensity or a desired intensity ratio.