| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20080266687 | All-reflective, wide-field-of-view, inverse-telephoto optical system with external posterior aperture stop and long back focal length - An imaging optical system includes a set of mirrors including at least three mirrors on a beam path. Only a last mirror on the beam path has a positive optical power and all other mirrors have negative optical power. The sum of the optical powers of the mirrors is zero. An external posterior aperture stop is on the beam path between the last mirror and the image plane. A back focal length of the optical system is equal to or greater than an effective focal length of the optical system. The field of view is large, and typically at least 30-40 degrees in one plane. | 10-30-2008 |
| 20090108201 | Calibration source infrared assembly for an infrared detector - Provided is a calibration source IR assembly for an IR detector including an IR focal plane. The calibration assembly includes a rotatable spectral filter wheel optically coupled to an IR focal plane of the detector, the filter wheel having a plurality of areas each of at least a minimum size. At least one area being a calibration area, the calibration area including: a substrate having a first side facing the IR focal plane and a second side opposite from the first side; a light transmitting edge section disposed between the first side and the second side; and at least one light redirector disposed at least partially within the substrate, the light redirector structured and arranged to receive light from the edge and to redirect the light out the first side. A light source optically coupled to the edge section. An IR detector including the improvement of such a calibration source IR assembly is also provided. | 04-30-2009 |
| 20090109561 | Beam-steering apparatus having five degrees of freedom of line-of-sight steering - A beam-steering apparatus comprises a set of planar tiltable mirrors positioned to define a light beam path therebetween. The set of planar tiltable mirrors comprises from three to five planar tiltable mirrors. Each of the planar tiltable mirrors has a center of rotation lying in a plane of the mirror and each of the planar tiltable mirrors is tiltable about one axis of rotation or two orthogonal axes of rotation that lie in the plane of the mirror. The total number of axes of rotation about which the planar tiltable mirrors of the set of planar tiltable mirrors can tilt is at least five. A mirror drive system tilts each respective planar mirror about its respective axis of rotation or axes of rotation. With this apparatus, an input or output light beam path is steerable over two angular, one rotational, and two lateral-position degrees of freedom. | 04-30-2009 |
| 20090212219 | INFRARED IMAGING OPTICAL SYSTEM WITH VARYING FOCAL LENGTH ACROSS THE FIELD OF VIEW - Provided is an infrared imaging optical system with an advantageously varying focal length across the field of view. More specifically, in a particular embodiment, provided is an inverse telephoto lens group having a field of view on the order of at least two radians. The focal length of the lens group is structured and arranged to vary in a pre-determined fashion across the field of view. An IR detector is optically coupled to the inverse telephoto lens group. A pupil is disposed between the IR detector and the inverse telephoto lens group. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20090237784 | Pointable Optical System With Coude Optics Having A Short On-Gimbal Path Length - A coude gimbal structure includes a two-axis gimbal system having an outer gimbal pivotable about a first rotational axis, and an inner gimbal supported on the outer gimbal and pivotable about a second rotational axis which intersects the first rotational axis at an intersection point. A folded afocal three-mirror anastigmat has a positive-optical-power primary mirror, a negative-optical-power secondary mirror, and a positive-optical-power tertiary mirror, and a first flat fold mirror, and a second flat fold mirror. A beam path incident upon the primary mirror is reflected from the primary mirror to the secondary mirror. The tertiary mirror lies on the second rotational axis, the first flat fold mirror redirects the beam path reflected from the secondary mirror to the tertiary mirror, and the second flat fold mirror lies at the intersection point and redirects the beam path reflected from the tertiary mirror along the first rotational axis. | 09-24-2009 |
| 20100188762 | APPARATUS AND METHOD OF SHAPING A LASER BEAM PROFILE - Various embodiments provide an apparatus and method for shaping a laser beam profile in which the apparatus includes a reformatting optical system configured to reformat a laser beam having a Gaussian intensity profile into a radiation beam having a top hat intensity profile; and a Fourier transforming optical system configured to transform the radiation beam having the top hat intensity profile into a radiation beam having a Bessel or sinc function intensity profile. | 07-29-2010 |
| 20100202073 | ALL-REFLECTIVE AFOCAL TELESCOPE DERIVED FROM THE FIRST TWO MIRRORS OF A FOCAL THREE-MIRROR ANASTIGMAT TELESCOPE - In one or more embodiments, an all-reflective optical system includes a primary mirror of ellipsoidal configuration, a secondary mirror of hyperboloidal configuration facing the primary mirror, and an eye-piece that includes: a positive-powered tertiary mirror having a majority of positive power that is expected in the eye-piece and configured to substantially collimate light rays incident thereon; and a negative-powered near-flat quaternary mirror having lesser power than the tertiary mirror and configured to receive the substantially collimated light rays from the tertiary mirror, further collimate the received light rays and reflect the further collimated light rays to an exit pupil. The primary mirror, the secondary mirror and the eye-piece thereby form an afocal optical system. | 08-12-2010 |
| 20100245965 | REAL-TIME OPTICAL COMPENSATION OF ORBIT INDUCED DISTORTION EFFECTS IN LONG INTEGRATION TIME IMAGERS - An apparatus and method for effecting and changing optical distortions is disclosed. The apparatus includes a beam imaging apparatus including a first deformable mirror, a second deformable mirror, and a beam-steering apparatus. The beam-steering apparatus includes a plurality of planar tiltable mirrors arranged to define a radiation beam path therebetween, wherein the plurality of planar tiltable mirrors comprises at least three tiltable mirrors. A mirror drive system is configured to tilt each respective planar mirror about its respective axis of rotation or axes of rotation and a controller is configured to control deformation of a reflective surface of the first and the second deformable mirrors. | 09-30-2010 |
| 20100265364 | SELF-CORRECTING ADAPTIVE LONG-STARE ELECTRO-OPTICAL SYSTEM - An imaging platform minimizes image distortion when there is relative motion of the imaging platform with respect to the scene being imaged where the imaging platform may be particularly susceptible to distortion when it is configured with a wide field of view or high angular rate of movement, or when performing long-stares at a given scene (e.g., for nighttime and low-light imaging.) Distortion correction may be performed by predicting distortion due to the relative motion of the imaging platform, determining optical transformations to prevent the distortion, dynamically adjusting the optics of the imaging platform during exposure, and performing digital image correction. | 10-21-2010 |
| 20110037003 | MULTI-AXIS ARTICULATED SOLAR LIGHT SHADE FOR SPACE-BASED SENSORS - In one or more embodiments, a multi-axis articulated solar light shade that protects elements of a space-based sensor from direct solar illumination includes a base; a partial conical baffle tube having a first end portion, a second end portion, an elongated curved portion defining a shade between the first and second end portions, and an opening defined in an interior of the elongated curved portion, the first end portion rotatably attached to the base; and a visor pivotably attached to the second end portion. The partial conical baffle tube may be selectively rotated about a sensor line-of-sight in response to the sun's position relative to the sensor line-of-sight; and the visor may be selectively pivoted relative to the partial conical baffle tube in response to the sun's position relative to the sensor line-of-sight so as to protect the sensor from the direct solar illumination at any given time or any given orbital position. | 02-17-2011 |
| 20110085235 | ALL-REFLECTIVE RELAYED FOCAL TELESCOPE DERIVED FROM THE FIRST TWO MIRRORS OF AN AFOCAL THREE-MIRROR ANASTIGMAT - An optical system includes a primary mirror of a positive-powered concave substantially paraboloidal configuration configured to reflect light incident thereupon; a secondary mirror of a negative-powered convex hyperboloidal configuration facing the primary mirror configured to receive the light reflected from the primary mirror and redirect the light reflected from the primary mirror; a positive-powered tertiary mirror configured to substantially reimage and reflect divergent light rays incident from the secondary mirror; and a powered quaternary mirror configured to receive the reimaged light rays from the tertiary mirror, and to relay the received reimaged light rays to a focal point. | 04-14-2011 |
