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. 06, 1993
Filed:
Dec. 05, 1991
James E Nicholson, Austin, TX (US);
Jack H Parker, Kettering, OH (US);
Jagdish P Mathur, Austin, TX (US);
David M Hull, Austin, TX (US);
Tracor Aerospace, Inc., Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
An incriment optical signal from a potential enemy threat is captured by an array of apertures which are connected to a number of broadband filters. The broadband filters have overlapping band pass regions to cover the wavelength spectrum of potential threats, but not with the spectral resolution of a larger number of narrowband filters. To further increase resolution without adding additional filters, each broadband filter is connected to an optical delay line which converts wavelength into a time delay. To enable measurement of the time delay, additional optical lines with no relative delay are connected directly from the apertures. The time difference between when a signal arrives over optical delay lines from the filters and when a signal arrives over optical lines directly from the array of apertures is then reconverted to wavelength to a high degree of resolution.