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:
Oct. 05, 1999
Filed:
Mar. 28, 1997
Peter Michael Baumgart, San Jose, CA (US);
James Hammond Brannon, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Chie Ching Poon, San Jose, CA (US);
Andrew Ching Tam, Saratoga, CA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A multichannel acousto-optic modulator (MCAOM) is described which uses a crystal with a plurality of mounting faces for acoustic transducers. The mounting faces are oriented so that the acoustic transducers mounted thereon generate acoustic fields which intersect the incident laser beam at a common angle, i.e., the Bragg angle. A two channel MCAOM uses two transducers. Extension to any higher number of channels follows accordingly. Energizing any of the transducers causes a corresponding first order beam to be diffracted out. Since the acoustic field for each transducer intersects the incident beam with a unique orientation, each first order beam is diffracted out on a unique axis. A system utilizing an MCAOM has electronic means for controlling the driving signals to the transducers to control each channel as required by the application. Amplitude and frequency modulation of the driving signals allows the intensity and angle of the beams to be controlled.