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:
Mar. 08, 1994
Filed:
Mar. 05, 1993
Gordon H Burkhart, St. Louis, MO (US);
Ronald A Ferrante, St. Charles, MO (US);
McDonnell Douglas Corporation, St. Louis, MO (US);
Abstract
An aspheric cylindrical lens for collimating, with low optical aberrations, the asymmetrically diverging beams of diode laser arrays and a method of fabricating such lenses. The aspheric cylindrical lens are formed from a plano-spherical optical lens. The planar surface of the lens is then optimized such that each ray of light from a diverging input light source will travel the same optical path length in reaching a predetermined collimation plane. Due to the optimization process, an aspherical front lens surface is formed from the initial planar lens surface. The aspheric cylindrical lens may be formed by means of a drawing process in which a master lens element is drawn into a plurality of aspheric cylindrical lens elements. In such a drawing process, a master lens element is manufactured having a spherical back lens surface and an optimized front lens surface which are proportionately identical in cross-section to resulting aspheric cylindrical lens, but substantially larger in physical dimensions. The numerous optimized aspheric cylindrical lens resulting from the drawing process may thus be produced in an economical and reliable manner.