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:
Nov. 21, 2000
Filed:
Mar. 31, 1998
Applicant:
Inventor:
James C Russell, Bellevue, WA (US);
Assignee:
The Boeing Company, Seattle, WA (US);
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G01B / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
356352 ; 356346 ; 356345 ;
Abstract
An interferometer, preferably a wedge etalon, produces a spatial pattern of fringes when incident radiant energy is coherent. A system for analyzing these fringes uses a transform operation to detect spatial regularity. The transform operation may be electronic (computational) based on the output of individual photodetectors of an array disposed adjacent to the interferometer, or optical by a Fourier transform lens disposed adjacent to the interferometer. In either case, the combination of fringe creating element and transform operation permits the unambiguous detection of light with a coherence length longer than that of natural light, such as from a laser.