Patents by Inventor Anson Y. G. Au

Anson Y. G. Au 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: 5608833
    Abstract: A focal-plane detector imaging system that can tolerate higher intensity optical beams than prior systems, without a reduction in the system's field-of-view, comprises an imaging lens, a fiber optic array positioned at the image plane of the imaging lens and an image detector positioned at the output end of the fiber optic array. The optical fibers that make up the fiber array have core diameters that are larger than the focal spot of an incoming optical beam. In operation, the fiber array transfers the imaged scene to the image detector at its output end. The focused optical beam is also transferred to the image detector at the array's output end, but its diameter is enlarged due to its angular divergence. In a preferred embodiment, the f-number of the imaging lens, diameter of the fiber cores, and the lengths of the fibers in the array are designed so that, as the power of an incoming optical beam increases, the optical damage threshold of the fiber array is reached before that of the image detector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 1995
    Date of Patent: March 4, 1997
    Assignee: Hughes Electronics
    Inventors: Anson Y. G. Au, Shin-Tson Wu