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:
Feb. 14, 1995
Filed:
Jan. 04, 1994
Lester L Hodson, McKinney, TX (US);
Kirk S Laney, Plano, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
An optical coupler (10) and method of manufacturing the optical coupler (10) are disclosed. The optical coupler (10) includes a light emitter (12), a light detector (18, 22), an inner mold material (30), and a precision reflector (32) for efficiently reflecting light from the emitter (12) to the light detector (18, 22). In manufacturing the coupler (10), the light emitter (12) is coupled to a first mount lead (14) and the light detector (18) is coupled to a second mount lead (20). There may be more than one light emitter (12) or light detector (18,22). A transparent inner mold material (30) surrounds and encases the light emitter (12) and light detector (18) along with a portion of the first and second mount leads (14, 20) and forms a precision molded reflector (32) over the light emitter (12) and light detector (18). The precision molded reflector (32) may be a precision molded dome (38) or a precision molded multifaceted vault (44). The precision molded reflector (32) has a reflective coating (34) for returning light from the light emitter (12) to the light detector (18, 22). The light emitter (12), light detector (18, 22), a portion of the mount leads (14, 20), and the inner mold material (30) are encased by an opaque overmold (36).