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. 10, 2005
Filed:
Dec. 14, 2001
James K. Walker, Gainesville, FL (US);
Jacob R. Tymianski, Gainesville, FL (US);
Yongcheng LI, Prattville, AL (US);
Bongsoo Lee, Sungnam-Si, Kyungki-Do, KR;
Jonathan Couch, Archer, FL (US);
James K. Walker, Gainesville, FL (US);
Jacob R. Tymianski, Gainesville, FL (US);
Yongcheng Li, Prattville, AL (US);
Bongsoo Lee, Sungnam-Si, Kyungki-Do, KR;
Jonathan Couch, Archer, FL (US);
Other;
Abstract
This invention concerns a method and apparatus for manufacturing a sheet and a two-dimensional matrix of plastic optical fibers. The fibers may be of the step-index or graded-index type. Co-extrusion through a specially designed die is used to produce a sheet composed of a fiber array. The fiber sheet (ribbon) can be used for transmitting optical signals. These arrays may also be stacked and fused at high temperatures to form the two-dimensional matrix required for many applications such as large area image transfer. In addition, a high-speed, continuous manufacturing method is disclosed to produce a massive two-dimensional matrix of fibers. The method of manufacture permits high quality image transfer at low manufacturing cost in a wide array of geometries.