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:
May. 13, 2003
Filed:
Dec. 10, 1999
Dirk Droste, Edingen, DE;
20/10 Perfect Vision Optische Geraete GmbH, Heidelberg, DE;
Abstract
A device for detecting a wavefront that is defined by a plurality of contiguous light beams includes an array of lenslets for isolating the individual light beams and focusing each individual light beam to a focal point in an x-y plane. The device also has a plurality of clusters which are positioned in the x-y plane, and each cluster includes a plurality of pixels that are arranged in rows aligned in an x-direction, and columns aligned in a y-direction. Additionally, each pixel of a cluster includes both a first photocell for generating an x-signal and a second photocell for generating a y-signal, respectively, in response to an illumination of the pixel by a light beam. Further, the device includes circuitry for converting the x and y signals to digital signals and then using the digital signals to determine an x-y position for the focal point of the particular light beam that is incident on the cluster. A computer then compares the respective x-y positions of the various focal points to detect the wavefront. Depending on the particular application of the device, either photodiodes or phototransistors may be selected for use as the photocells in the pixels.