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:
Jul. 02, 1991
Filed:
Jan. 16, 1990
David W Gerdt, Charlottesville, VA (US);
Sperry Marine Inc., Charlottesville, VA (US);
Abstract
The pulsed input light source of the fiber-optic sensor array is divided into a plurality of input light sources for the respective sensors of the array by a network of low-loss single mode fixed ratio fiber-optic couplers. The input light is applied to the input fiber of a first fixed ratio coupler, the output fibers thereof providing the input fibers of further fixed ratio couplers and so forth until the light is divided into the appropriate number of sources. The divided light sources are applied to the input fibers of the variable ratio fiber-optic coupler sensors of the array through differing lengths of optical fiber so that the input light pulses impinge upon the sensors of the array at different times. The output fibers of the sensors are coupled to multimode busses through low-loss taps. In an alternative embodiment for highly imbalanced ratio fiber-optic coupler sensors, the pulsed input light is applied to the input fiber of a first sensor. The high percentage output leg of the first sensor provides the input to a second sensor of the array, the high percentage output fiber thereof providing the input to the next array sensor. The low percentage legs of the sensors, which carry the information, are tapped into a multimode fiber-optic bus.