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:
Feb. 21, 2006
Filed:
Feb. 13, 2004
Kenneth L. Girvin, Grants Pass, OR (US);
Adam J. Reed, Ashland, OR (US);
Kenneth L. Girvin, Grants Pass, OR (US);
Adam J. Reed, Ashland, OR (US);
Hach Ultra Analytics, Inc., Grants Pass, OR (US);
Abstract
A light-extinction-type optical particle detection system comprises a laser producing a beam in response to a drive current amplitude reaching a lasing threshold, a view volume, and a light-extinction detector. The beam is characterized by mode-hopping noise energy produced by spurious switching of laser operating modes. The system comprises a signal generator producing the drive current such that its amplitude transitions across the threshold by a selected amount and at a selected frequency to cause the beam to operate simultaneously in multiple modes. The selected amount and frequency cooperate to spread the mode-hopping noise energy over a spectral range established by the number of modes, such that the detector does not appreciably respond to the mode-hopping noise energy.