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:
Jun. 29, 1999
Filed:
Aug. 15, 1997
Xiaojie Xu, Tucson, AZ (US);
Michael E Savard, Tucson, AZ (US);
LightPath Technologies, Inc., Alubquerque, NM (US);
Abstract
A method is provided of manufacturing an optical element having an optical axis, and including a plurality of definable adjacent zones of optical material, each zone having a definable refractive index different from the refractive index of an adjacent zone and an Abbe number, the zones of optical materials being arranged parallel to each other to define a profile of refractive indices which is symmetric about a plane of symmetry along the optical axis of the element and parallel to the zones. The method include (a) arranging a plurality of substantially planar layers of optical material having different refractive indices and Abbe numbers in order of their respective refractive indices; (b) fusing and diffusing together the plurality of layers to form a solid body of optical material having a first face of material having the highest refractive index and a second face of material having the lowest refractive index of the plurality of selected optical materials; (c) removing two portions of the body, each including part of the first and second faces; and (d) joining the two portions together with faces of material of like refractive index abutting. In one embodiment, the optical element is a spectrally invariant lens.