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:
Aug. 08, 2000
Filed:
Oct. 10, 1997
Gary Sharp, Boulder, CO (US);
Steven A Serati, Golden, CO (US);
Teresa Kaye Ewing, Longmont, CO (US);
Boulder Nonlinear Systems, Inc., Lafayette, CO (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a polarizing interferometer multiplex spectrometer using a zero-order switch, a multi-order switch and an output polarizer to multiplex the recovery of an entire input spectrum. The zero-order switch and multi-order switch require input light of a fixed polarization; thus the present invention provides a preferred embodiment that uses a zero-order switch and a multi-order switch positioned between an input polarizer and an output polarizer. For a sequence of time delays incremented by the multi-order and zero-order switches, the total transmitted power at all wavelengths is measured. From these, the coefficients of a Fourier series representation of the input spectrum are obtained, and the entire spectrum is mathematically reconstructed. Although the structure is similar to a tunable interference filter, the PIMS does not function as a filter, and more particularly, does not scan the transmission wavelength and measure power as a function of wavelength. The present invention further provides a multi-order switch that uses an active LC device to switch between summing and differencing the retardances of two fixed retarders. The present invention further provides a method of obtaining a Fourier series representation of a spectrum of input light.