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:
Dec. 02, 1997
Filed:
Jun. 07, 1995
James R Gallivan, Pomona, CA (US);
Richard D Ford, Green Valley, AZ (US);
Hughes Aircraft Company, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A long-term thermally stable cryostat (40). The cryostat (40) pre-cools an incoming high-pressure gas, converts it to a cold liquid, contains the liquid, and cools an item by allowing the liquid to acquire heat from the item and boil into an exhaust gas, while maintaining an absolute pressure in the container to reduce thermal noise due to altitude-induced pressure changes. In specific embodiments, the cryostat (40) includes a hollow mandrel (52) disposed within a cooling volume (64) mounted within a dewar vacuum area (58). Pre-cooling fins (44) spiral around the hollow mandrel (52) within the cooling volume (64) and circulate an incoming high-pressure gas around the mandrel (52). A flow restrictor (60) receives the incoming gas from the pre-cooling fins (44) and releases it into the cooling volume (64), thereby converting the incoming gas into a cold liquid which can acquire heat from the item and boil into an exhaust gas. A pressure back plate (48) having a vent path therein and an O-ring (56) confine a first volume of the exhaust gas flowing past the pre-cooling fins (44) to pre-cool the incoming gas. An absolute pressure regulator (50) in communication with an end of the mandrel (52) receives a second volume of the exhaust gas flowing through the mandrel (52) to maintain an absolute pressure in the cooling volume (64).