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. 26, 2015
Filed:
Mar. 13, 2013
The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA (US);
Siegfried W. Janson, Redondo Beach, CA (US);
The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA (US);
Abstract
Under one aspect of the present invention, a monolithic sun sensor includes a photosensor; a spacer material disposed over the photosensor; and a patterned mask disposed over the spacer material and defining an aperture over the photosensor. The spacer material has a thickness selected such that the patterned mask casts a shadow onto the photosensor that varies as a function of the monolithic sun sensor's angle relative to the sun. The sun sensor may further include a substrate in which the photosensor is embedded or on which the photosensor is disposed. The spacer material may be transparent, and may include a layer of inorganic oxide, or a plurality of layers of inorganic oxide. The patterned mask may include a conductive material, such as a metal. The aperture may be lithographically defined, and may be square. The sun sensor may further include a transparent overlayer disposed over the patterned mask.