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:
Oct. 05, 2010
Filed:
Jan. 09, 2008
Jesse Tawney, Wilmington, MA (US);
Farhad Hakimi, Watertown, MA (US);
Jesse Tawney, Wilmington, MA (US);
Farhad Hakimi, Watertown, MA (US);
The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are provided for integrating various optical components onto a planar substrate using a single semiconductor material system to produce an accelerometer. A light beam is generated on the semiconductor optical accelerometer. The light beam is split to form two light beams using a multimode interference (MMI) coupler. One of the two light beams that is formed is directed towards a reference mirror and the other is directed towards a flexured mirror. The flexured mirror moves as a result of acceleration and thereby reflects the light beam with a different light beam characteristic. The light beams are combined by the MMI coupler to produce an interference light beam. A microprocessor measures acceleration based on the differences in light beam characteristics of the reflected light beams. Along the optical path light beam detectors measure various beam characteristics. The microprocessor accounts for characteristics measured by the detectors when computing acceleration.