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. 09, 2017
Filed:
Mar. 14, 2014
The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., Cambridge, MA (US);
Juha-Pekka J. Laine, Boston, MA (US);
Gregory Blasche, Burlington, MA (US);
John J. Boyle, Bourne, MA (US);
Paul Bohn, Brighton, MA (US);
Robin M. Dawson, Watertown, MA (US);
Benjamin F. Lane, Grafton, MA (US);
Erik L. Waldron, Concord, MA (US);
THE CHARLES STARK DRAPER LABORATORY, INC., Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
A star camera system that includes an optical system configured to focus radiation from a star to be imaged onto a collector that is in the form of an electron bombarded active pixel sensor (EBAPS) configured to provide high gain. The EBAPS comprising a photocathode disposed in a vacuum is configured to release electrons into the vacuum when exposed to radiation focused thereon by the optical system. The EBAPS includes an active pixel sensor anode disposed distant from the photocathode in the vacuum. An electric field is generated by a voltage source to direct the electrons from the photocathode to the active pixel sensor anode. Furthermore, the collector is mounted on a translation device configured to move the collector relative to the optical system by a predetermined amount of less than pixel size in the focal plane of the optical system to increase image resolution of a plurality of images.