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:
Dec. 15, 2009
Filed:
Aug. 09, 2006
Peter Y. M. Livingston, Palos Verdes Estates, CA (US);
Peter Y. M. Livingston, Palos Verdes Estates, CA (US);
Northrop Grumman Corporation, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus in one example has: first and second Fourier transform lenses, the first Fourier transform lens receiving an incident plane wavefront and focusing the plane wavefront down to a focal point in a focal plane, and the second Fourier transform lens reimaging the focused down plane wavefront to an output plane wavefront; a bead located substantially at the focal point and that is illuminated by radiation that comes in from the first lens, the bead reradiating a spherical wave, which interferes with light that passes around the bead to produce a diffraction pattern; an array of controllable light transmissive elements that support the bead in the focal plane; and a null seeking servomechanism for assigning an electrical value of phase departure of the incident plane wavefront from a reference thereof, the null seeking servomechanism controlling the light transmissive elements to produce phase shifts in light that passes around the bead to thereby remove aberrations in the incident plane wavefront.