Patents by Inventor Douglas E. Crafts
Douglas E. Crafts has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Patent number: 9564542Abstract: A solar cell formation method, and resulting structure, having a first film and a barrier film over a surface of a doped semiconductor, wherein the optical and/or electrical properties of the first film are transformed in-situ such that a resulting transformed film is better suited to the efficient functioning of the solar cell; wherein portions of the barrier film partially cover the first film and substantially prevent transformation of first film areas beneath the portions of the barrier film.Type: GrantFiled: September 17, 2010Date of Patent: February 7, 2017Assignee: TETRASUN, INC.Inventors: Adrian Bruce Turner, Oliver Schultz-Wittmann, Denis De Ceuster, Douglas E. Crafts
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Patent number: 9508887Abstract: Methods of fabricating conductive patterns over a solar cell structure are provided, in which a patterned resist layer is provided over an anti-reflective coating layer formed over a solar cell structure. The patterned resist layer is used to etch the exposed portion of the anti-reflective coating, and a metal seed layer is provided over the resist layer and the exposed portion of the solar cell structure's surface. The metal seed layer is selectively removed from over the patterned resist layer without removal from the exposed portion of the surface of the solar cell structure. Different thermal conductivities of the patterned resist layer and the solar cell structure's surface facilitate the selective removal of the seed layer from over the resist layer. Also provided are methods of facilitating simultaneous fabrication of conductive patterns over a plurality of solar cell structures using one or more frame structures.Type: GrantFiled: October 24, 2013Date of Patent: November 29, 2016Assignee: TETRASUN, INC.Inventors: Douglas E. Crafts, Oliver Schultz-Wittmann, Adrian B. Turner, Qin Yang Ong
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Publication number: 20150295122Abstract: Methods of fabricating conductive patterns over a solar cell structure are provided, in which a patterned resist layer is provided over an anti-reflective coating layer formed over a solar cell structure. The patterned resist layer is used to etch the exposed portion of the anti-reflective coating, and a metal seed layer is provided over the resist layer and the exposed portion of the solar cell structure's surface. The metal seed layer is selectively removed from over the patterned resist layer without removal from the exposed portion of the surface of the solar cell structure. Different thermal conductivities of the patterned resist layer and the solar cell structure's surface facilitate the selective removal of the seed layer from over the resist layer. Also provided are methods of facilitating simultaneous fabrication of conductive patterns over a plurality of solar cell structures using one or more frame structures.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 24, 2013Publication date: October 15, 2015Applicant: TETRASUN, INC.Inventors: Douglas E. Crafts, Oliver Schultz-Wittmann, Adrian B. Turner, Qin Yang Ong
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Patent number: 8638113Abstract: A wafer-scale probe card for temporary electrical contact to a sample wafer or other device, for burn-in and test. The card includes a plurality of directly metallized single-walled or multi-walled nanotubes contacting a pre-arranged electrical contact pattern on the probe card substrate. The nanotubes are arranged into bundles for forming electrical contacts between areas of the device under test and the probe card. The bundles are compressible along their length to allow a compressive force to be used for contacting the probe card substrate to the device under test. A strengthening material may be disposed around and/or infiltrate the bundles. The nanotubes forming the bundles may be patterned to provide a pre-determined bundle profile. Tips of the bundles may be metallized with a conductive material to form a conformal coating on the bundles; or metallized with a conductive material to form a continuous, single contact surface.Type: GrantFiled: May 4, 2010Date of Patent: January 28, 2014Assignee: FormFactor, Inc.Inventors: Douglas E. Crafts, Jyoti K. Bhardwaj
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Patent number: 8340523Abstract: A tunable PLC optical filter having sequentially connected thermally tunable Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometers is described. The MZ interferometers, having free spectral ranges matching ITU frequency grid spacing, are tuned so as to have a common passband centered on the frequency of the signal being selected, while having at least one of the stopbands centered on any other ITU frequency. Any other optical channel that may be present at any other ITU frequency is suppressed as a result. The PLC chip, including a zero-dispersion lattice-filter interleaver stage, a switchable fine-resolution stage and, or a retroreflector for double passing the filter, is packaged into a hot-pluggable XFP transceiver package. A compensation heater is used to keep constant the amount of heat applied to the PLC chip inside the XFP package, so as to lessen temperature variations upon tuning of the PLC optical filter.Type: GrantFiled: February 20, 2009Date of Patent: December 25, 2012Assignee: JDS Uniphase CorporationInventors: Jinxi Shen, Jyoti K. Bhardwaj, Barthelemy Fondeur, Douglas E. Crafts, Robert J. Brainard, Boping Xie, David J. Chapman
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Publication number: 20120186649Abstract: A solar cell formation method, and resulting structure, having a first film and a barrier film over a surface of a doped semiconductor, wherein the optical and/or electrical properties of the first film are transformed in-situ such that a resulting transformed film is better suited to the efficient functioning of the solar cell; wherein portions of the barrier film partially cover the first film and substantially prevent transformation of first film areas beneath the portions of the barrier film.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 17, 2010Publication date: July 26, 2012Applicant: TETRASUN, INC.Inventors: Adrian Bruce Turner, Oliver Schultz-Wuttnann, Denis De Ceuster, Douglas E. Crafts
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Publication number: 20120060908Abstract: A solar cell, including contact metallization formed using selective laser irradiation. An upper layer is formed in the solar cell including a material which can be selectively modified to electrical contacts upon laser irradiation. Selective laser irradiation is applied to at least one region of the upper layer to form at least one electrical contact in the layer. A remaining region of the upper layer may be a functional layer of the solar cell which need not be removed. The upper layer may be, e.g., a transparent, conductive film, and anti-reflective film, and/or passivation. The electrical contact may provide an electrically conductive path to at least one region below the upper layer of the solar cell.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 21, 2010Publication date: March 15, 2012Applicant: TETRASUN, INC.Inventor: Douglas E. Crafts
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Patent number: 7952695Abstract: A scanning optical spectrometer with a detector array is disclosed, in which position of focused spot of light at the input of a dispersive element such as arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) with a slab input, is scanned using a micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) tiltable micromirror so as to make the dispersed spectrum of light scan over the detector array coupled to the AWG. Sub-spectra recorded using individual detectors are concatenated by a processor unit to obtain the spectrum of input light.Type: GrantFiled: November 4, 2010Date of Patent: May 31, 2011Assignee: JDS Uniphase CorporationInventors: Douglas E. Crafts, Jinxi Shen, Philip Duggan, James F. Farrell, Barthelemy Fondeur, Eliseo Ranalli
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Publication number: 20110096326Abstract: A scanning optical spectrometer with a detector array is disclosed, in which position of focused spot of light at the input of a dispersive element such as arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) with a slab input, is scanned using a micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) tiltable micromirror so as to make the dispersed spectrum of light scan over the detector array coupled to the AWG. Sub-spectra recorded using individual detectors are concatenated by a processor unit to obtain the spectrum of input light.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 4, 2010Publication date: April 28, 2011Applicant: JDS Uniphase CorporationInventors: Douglas E. Crafts, Jinxi Shen, Philip Duggan, James F. Farrell, Barthelemy Fondeur, Eliseo Ranalli
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Publication number: 20110018566Abstract: A wafer-scale probe card for temporary electrical contact to a sample wafer or other device, for burn-in and test. The card includes a plurality of directly metallized single-walled or multi-walled nanotubes contacting a pre-arranged electrical contact pattern on the probe card substrate. The nanotubes are arranged into bundles for forming electrical contacts between areas of the device under test and the probe card. The bundles are compressible along their length to allow a compressive force to be used for contacting the probe card substrate to the device under test. A strengthening material may be disposed around and/or infiltrate the bundles. The nanotubes forming the bundles may be patterned to provide a pre-determined bundle profile. Tips of the bundles may be metallized with a conductive material to form a conformal coating on the bundles; or metallized with a conductive material to form a continuous, single contact surface.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 4, 2010Publication date: January 27, 2011Inventors: Douglas E. CRAFTS, Jyoti K. BHARDWAJ
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Patent number: 7872735Abstract: A method and an apparatus for calibrating a MEMS actuator of a hybrid MEMS-PLC optical switch or router is described. Two calibrating waveguides, embedded monolithically adjacent to the waveguides that provide the PLC output functions, are used for referencing a MEMS mirror tilt angle by maximizing optical coupling of light, reflected off the MEMS mirror, into one or each of the two calibrating waveguides. The input light is provided by either a waveguide carrying a live optical signal, or by a special input waveguide, coupled to an LED, for providing a calibrating light. Two emitting waveguides, embedded monolithically adjacent to the waveguides that provide the PLC input functions, can be used.Type: GrantFiled: June 30, 2008Date of Patent: January 18, 2011Assignee: JDS Uniphase CorporationInventors: Philip Duggan, Jinxi Shen, Douglas E. Crafts
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Patent number: 7852475Abstract: A scanning optical spectrometer with a detector array is disclosed, in which position of focused spot of light at the input of a dispersive element such as arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) with a slab input, is scanned using a micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) tiltable micromirror so as to make the dispersed spectrum of light scan over the detector array coupled to the AWG. Sub-spectra recorded using individual detectors are concatenated by a processor unit to obtain the spectrum of input light.Type: GrantFiled: August 12, 2008Date of Patent: December 14, 2010Assignee: JDS Uniphase CorporationInventors: Douglas E. Crafts, Jinxi Shen, Philip Duggan, James F. Farrell, Barthelemy Fondeur, Eliseo Ranalli
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Patent number: 7710106Abstract: A wafer-scale probe card for temporary electrical contact to a sample wafer or other device, for burn-in and test. The card includes a plurality of directly metallized single-walled or multi-walled nanotubes contacting a pre-arranged electrical contact pattern on the probe card substrate. The nanotubes are arranged into bundles for forming electrical contacts between areas of the device under test and the probe card. The bundles are compressible along their length to allow a compressive force to be used for contacting the probe card substrate to the device under test. A strengthening material may be disposed around and/or infiltrate the bundles. The nanotubes forming the bundles may be patterned to provide a pre-determined bundle profile. Tips of the bundles may be metallized with a conductive material to form a conformal coating on the bundles; or metallized with a conductive material to form a continuous, single contact surface.Type: GrantFiled: September 16, 2008Date of Patent: May 4, 2010Inventors: Douglas E. Crafts, Jyoti K. Bhardwaj
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Publication number: 20090263142Abstract: A tunable PLC optical filter having sequentially connected thermally tunable Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometers is described. The MZ interferometers, having free spectral ranges matching ITU frequency grid spacing, are tuned so as to have a common passband centered on the frequency of the signal being selected, while having at least one of the stopbands centered on any other ITU frequency. Any other optical channel that may be present at any other ITU frequency is suppressed as a result. The PLC chip, including a zero-dispersion lattice-filter interleaver stage, a switchable fine-resolution stage and, or a retroreflector for double passing the filter, is packaged into a hot-pluggable XFP transceiver package. A compensation heater is used to keep constant the amount of heat applied to the PLC chip inside the XFP package, so as to lessen temperature variations upon tuning of the PLC optical filter.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 20, 2009Publication date: October 22, 2009Inventors: Jinxi Shen, Jyoti K. Bhardwaj, Barthelemy Fondeur, Douglas E. Crafts, Robert J. Brainard, Boping Xie, David J. Chapman
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Publication number: 20090121732Abstract: A wafer-scale probe card for temporary electrical contact to a sample wafer or other device, for burn-in and test. The card includes a plurality of directly metallized single-walled or multi-walled nanotubes contacting a pre-arranged electrical contact pattern on the probe card substrate. The nanotubes are arranged into bundles for forming electrical contacts between areas of the device under test and the probe card. The bundles are compressible along their length to allow a compressive force to be used for contacting the probe card substrate to the device under test. A strengthening material may be disposed around and/or infiltrate the bundles. The nanotubes forming the bundles may be patterned to provide a pre-determined bundle profile. Tips of the bundles may be metallized with a conductive material to form a conformal coating on the bundles; or metallized with a conductive material to form a continuous, single contact surface.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 16, 2008Publication date: May 14, 2009Inventors: Douglas E. CRAFTS, Jyoti K. BHARDWAJ
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Publication number: 20090046288Abstract: A scanning optical spectrometer with a detector array is disclosed, in which position of focused spot of light at the input of a dispersive element such as arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) with a slab input, is scanned using a micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) tiltable micromirror so as to make the dispersed spectrum of light scan over the detector array coupled to the AWG. Sub-spectra recorded using individual detectors are concatenated by a processor unit to obtain the spectrum of input light.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 12, 2008Publication date: February 19, 2009Applicant: JDS Uniphase CorporationInventors: Douglas E. Crafts, Jinxi Shen, Philip Duggan, James F. Farrell, Barthelemy Fondeur, Eliseo Ranalli
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Publication number: 20090009752Abstract: A method and an apparatus for calibrating a MEMS actuator of a hybrid MEMS-PLC optical switch or router is described. Two calibrating waveguides, embedded monolithically adjacent to the waveguides that provide the PLC output functions, are used for referencing a MEMS mirror tilt angle by maximizing optical coupling of light, reflected off the MEMS mirror, into one or each of the two calibrating waveguides. The input light is provided by either a waveguide carrying a live optical signal, or by a special input waveguide, coupled to an LED, for providing a calibrating light. Two emitting waveguides, embedded monolithically adjacent to the waveguides that provide the PLC input functions, can be used.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 30, 2008Publication date: January 8, 2009Applicant: JDS Uniphase CorporationInventors: Philip Duggan, Jinxi Shen, Douglas E. Crafts
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Patent number: 7440650Abstract: The present invention extends the concept of a standard array waveguide grating (AWG), which focuses each wavelength component launched via an input AWG to a Rowland circle inside a planar lightwave chip (PLC) where discrete waveguides are located, to one which focuses each wavelength component outside of the PLC chip along a straight line. An array of MEMS mirrors or other redirecting elements is positioned at the focus location for independently redirecting each of the wavelength channels back to any number of selected output AWGs formed on the same PLC chip as the input AWG.Type: GrantFiled: July 24, 2007Date of Patent: October 21, 2008Assignee: JDS Uniphase CorporationInventors: Barthelemy Fondeur, Douglas E. Crafts, Eliseo Ranalli
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Patent number: 7439731Abstract: A wafer-scale probe card for temporary electrical contact to a sample wafer or other device, for burn-in and test. The card includes a plurality of directly metallized single-walled or multi-walled nanotubes contacting a pre-arranged electrical contact pattern on the probe card substrate. The nanotubes are arranged into bundles for forming electrical contacts between areas of the device under test and the probe card. The bundles are compressible along their length to allow a compressive force to be used for contacting the probe card substrate to the device under test. A strengthening material may be disposed around and/or infiltrate the bundles. The nanotubes forming the bundles may be patterned to provide a pre-determined bundle profile. Tips of the bundles may be metallized with a conductive material to form a conformal coating on the bundles; or metallized with a conductive material to form a continuous, single contact surface.Type: GrantFiled: June 23, 2006Date of Patent: October 21, 2008Inventors: Douglas E. Crafts, Jyoti K. Bhardwaj
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Publication number: 20080031570Abstract: The present invention extends the concept of a standard array waveguide grating (AWG), which focuses each wavelength component launched via an input AWG to a Rowland circle inside a planar lightwave chip (PLC) where discrete waveguides are located, to one which focuses each wavelength component outside of the PLC chip along a straight line. An array of MEMS mirrors or other redirecting elements is positioned at the focus location for independently redirecting each of the wavelength channels back to any number of selected output AWGs formed on the same PLC chip as the input AWG.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 24, 2007Publication date: February 7, 2008Applicant: JDS Uniphase CorporationInventors: Barthelemy Fondeur, Douglas E. Crafts, Eliseo Ranalli