Patents by Inventor Neil A. McKinnon

Neil A. McKinnon 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).

  • Patent number: 11555982
    Abstract: Optoelectronic apparatus includes a projector, which includes an emitter array, including emitters configured to emit respective beams of optical radiation, and projection optics having an entrance face and an exit face and configured to receive the beams of the optical radiation through the entrance face and to project the beams through the exit face. An optical window is positioned adjacent to the exit face and is configured to transmit the optical radiation emitted by the emitter array toward a scene. A detector array includes multiple optical detector elements, which are configured to detect a part of the optical radiation that is reflected back into the apparatus by the optical window. A controller is coupled to monitor a spatial distribution of the optical radiation reflected by the optical window and sensed by the detector array, so as to detect and adjust for a positional deviation of the projector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventor: Neil McKinnon
  • Patent number: 4279655
    Abstract: A magnesia partially stabilized zirconia ceramic material possessing from about 2.8 to about 4.0 wt percent magnesia, and made from a zirconia powder containing no more than about 0.03 percent silica is described. The ceramic material has a microstructure, produced as a consequence of the method by which the material is made, which provides both high strength and good thermal shock resistance properties. This microstructure comprises grains of cubic stabilized zirconia within which are formed, during cooling from the firing temperature, precipitates of tetragonal zirconia. These precipitates are elliptical in shape, with a long axis of about 1500 Angstrom units. Additionally, some of the tetragonal zironcia precipitates are made to transform into a non-twinned microcrystalline monoclinic form of zirconia by reducing the temperature of the material to below 800.degree. C., then subsequently holding the material at a temperature in the range from 1000.degree. C. to about 1400.degree. C.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 1980
    Date of Patent: July 21, 1981
    Inventors: Ronald C. Garvie, Richard H. J. Hannink, Neil A. McKinnon
  • Patent number: 4193857
    Abstract: A composite solid electrolyte material for use in oxygen sensors, which comprises a mixture of at least two ceramic constituents, one of which is a good oxygen ion conductor and the other a non-electrolyte, is useful for oxygen sensor fabrication. Particularly, it enables gas analysis oxygen sensors to be produced by conventional techniques because the coefficient of thermal expansion of the composite electrolyte material can be closely matched to the material of a supporting sensor body. The closeness of thermal expansion coefficients means that oxygen sensors can now be formed in the "green" state, then fired.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 1977
    Date of Patent: March 18, 1980
    Assignee: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
    Inventors: Michael J. Bannister, Neil A. McKinnon, Robert R. Hughan