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:
Mar. 23, 2004
Filed:
Mar. 15, 2002
Peter Vitruk, Bothell, WA (US);
Other;
Abstract
Truncated ridge waveguide for all-metal gas laser excitation according to present invention consists of a metal tube and a pair of endplates forming a vacuum envelope for containing a laser gas, a laser resonator mirrors placed on the endplates at the opposite ends of the tube and at least one elongated metal ridge electrode located within and conductively connected to the metal tube by at least one metal post to define a truncated ridge waveguide. The tube and the ridge electrode are shaped and positioned so as to define at least one elongated laser bore channel and a low thermal resistance and high capacitance ridge-to-tube gap therebetween. The ridge electrode and metal posts form truncated ridge to increase the ridge waveguide structure inductance, which together with high capacitance of the electrode-to-tube gap decreases the resonant frequency from the microwave band into the VHF band (30-300 MHz), which is the most suitable for CO laser excitation. Present invention is characterized by lower cost, simpler tube and electrode design and more efficient RF discharge plasma cooling by the inner wall of the metal tube acting as one of the discharge electrodes, and by a ridge acting as a second discharge electrode.