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:
Apr. 25, 1989
Filed:
May. 26, 1987
Bryce A Wheeler, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Lacy G Cook, El Segundo, CA (US);
Hughes Aircraft Company, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A wavefront sensor (10) for use in determining a phase error of an input beam (16) is disclosed. The wavefront sensor (10) includes mechanisms for obtaining a sample of an input beam (16). A mechanism (18) for splitting the beam (16) into two component beams (46) and (48) is associated with the beam (16). A second mechanism (20) for splitting the two component beams (46) and (48) into four component beams (58), (60), (62) and (64) is associated with the first splitting mechanism (18). A mechanism (26) for detecting the intensity distribution of the four component beams (58), (60), (62) and (64) is associated with the second splitting mechanism (20). A mechanism for determining the phase error of the input beam (16) from the intensity distributions is associated with the detector mechanism (26). Also disclosed is a method for determining the phase error on an input beam (16 ) using the above described wavefront sensor (10).