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. 09, 2004
Filed:
Feb. 12, 2003
George Caudle, Bonne Terre, MO (US);
Herrmann Glockler, Reno, NV (US);
Wayne Brewer, Cupertino, CA (US);
VISX, Incorporated, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems of temporally smoothing the distortion of a light beam caused by imperfections of an optical element or optical system through which the light beam passes. The optical element is moved relative to the light beam to change a position of the imperfections in the path of the light beam to distribute the distortion of the light beam caused by the imperfection without substantially changing the path of the light beam. In some embodiments, the optical element is axially symmetric with respect to its optical axis, and the distortion of the light beam is distributed by rotating the optical element around its optical axis. In some embodiments, the optical element has geometric uniformity relative to a plane or along a line in a plane, and the distortion of the light beam is distributed by moving the optical element along the plane, or along the line of symmetry in the plane.