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:
Jan. 06, 1987
Filed:
Feb. 19, 1986
James T Lindow, Saratoga, CA (US);
Simon D Bennett, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Ian R Smith, Los Gatos, CA (US);
SiScan Systems, Inc., Campbell, CA (US);
Abstract
A confocal optical imaging system includes a laser for producing a linearly polarized beam which is transmitted through the optical elements of the system, focused on a small spot on the target, and reflected back through the optical elements to a photodetector where the reflectance from the spot is determined. The optical elements include a pinhole plate for restricting the size of the transmitted and reflected beams which plate, along with other of the optical elements, can produce unwanted reflections adding optical noise to the reflected beam from the target. A retardation plate between the pinhole plate and the target alters the polarization of the transmitted beam relative to the reflected beam so that a polarizer will discriminate between the true reflected beam signal and the unwanted reflections to thereby improve the signal-to-noise ratio at the photodetector.