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:
Apr. 09, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 27, 2000
Samuel I. Green, St. Louis, MO (US);
Robert Rex Rice, Simi Valley, CA (US);
The Boeing Company, Seattle, WA (US);
Abstract
The collimation apparatus includes a plurality of optical fibers for providing respective primary optical signals. The collimation apparatus also includes a plurality of collimating lenses. Each collimating lens collimates the primary optical signals provided by a respective optical fiber. The collimation apparatus further includes a common reflector for reflecting the collimated optical signals back to the respective collimating lens. These reflections produce a return optical signal from each collimated optical signal. The collimation apparatus also includes at least one detector for receiving the return optical signals and a plurality of actuators for iteratively positioning the optical fibers based on the magnitude of the detected signals. By positioning the optical fibers relative to the respective collimating lenses such that the magnitude of the return signals is maximized, the collimation method and apparatus can accurately position the ends of the optical fibers at the focal points of the respective collimating lenses. The fiber optic auto-collimation method and apparatus collimates the radiation from many fibers through many lenses with a common flat reference mirror, so that the resultant beams all point in the same direction.