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. 12, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 06, 2001
David F. Rock, Torrance, CA (US);
Raytheon Company, Lexington, MA (US);
Abstract
A system ( ) for determining particle contamination on optical surfaces ( ) includes a detector array ( ) and a non-coherent light source ( ) that illuminates the detector array with non-coherent light reflected or refracted by the optical surfaces. Processing equipment ( ) identifies shadows ( ) on the detector array which are indicative of particle contamination of the optical surfaces. A light source controller ( ) moves the non-coherent light source resulting in movement of the shadows on the detector array. The processing equipment distinguishes shadows caused by particle contamination on a first of the optical surfaces ( ) from shadows caused by particle contamination on the other optical surfaces ( ) based on the movement of the shadows. The system also includes a particle contamination level analyzer ( ) to estimate a particle contamination level for each optical surface from contrast levels of the shadows identified for each optical surface.