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:
May. 29, 2002
George A. Pavlath, Thousand Oaks, CA (US);
Lawrence E. Bean, Lake Forest, CA (US);
Northrop Grumman Corporation, Woodland Hills, CA (US);
Abstract
A system and method for optically generating random numbers in a chaotic manner using an optical random number generator. The optical random number generator includes an optical interferometer having a chaotic output which is dependent upon temperature fluctuations in its surrounding micro-environment. The interferometer receives light from a light source, splits the received light between a pair of temperature-sensitive optical paths, and interferes the split light traveling on the pair of optical paths to generate an output signal. The power of the interferometer output signal is measured and compared with a threshold value in order to generate a random number based on the measured interferometer output power. Chaotic behavior in the interferometer output power is achieved by making the interferometer phase shift extremely sensitive to temperature fluctuations, where small changes in the temperature of the interferometer microenvironment will alter the output power of the interferometer.