Patents by Inventor Clarence E. Thomas

Clarence E. Thomas 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).

  • Publication number: 20040042057
    Abstract: Systems and methods are described for off-axis illumination direct-to-digital holography.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 3, 2002
    Publication date: March 4, 2004
    Inventors: Clarence E. Thomas, Jeffery R. Price, Edgar Voelkl, Gregory R. Hanson
  • Publication number: 20030227658
    Abstract: Improvements to the acquisition and replay systems for direct-to-digital holography and holovision are described. A method of recording an off-axis hologram includes: splitting a laser beam into an object beam and a reference beam; reflecting the reference beam from a reference beam mirror; reflecting the object beam from an illumination beamsplitter; passing the object beam through an objective lens; reflecting the object beam from an object; focusing the reference beam and the object beam at a focal plane of a digital recorder to form an off-axis hologram; digitally recording the off-axis hologram; and transforming the off-axis hologram in accordance with a Fourier transform to obtain a set of results. A method of writing an off-axis hologram includes: passing a laser beam through a spatial light modulator; and focusing the laser beam at a focal plane of a photorefractive crystal to impose a holographic diffraction grating pattern on the photorefractive crystal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 23, 2003
    Publication date: December 11, 2003
    Inventors: Clarence E. Thomas, Gregory R. Hanson
  • Publication number: 20030038244
    Abstract: Systems and methods are described for addressable field emission array (AFEA) chips. A method of operating an addressable field-emission array, includes: generating a plurality of electron beams from a pluralitly of emitters that compose the addressable field-emission array; and focusing at least one of the plurality of electron beams with an on-chip electrostatic focusing stack. The systems and methods provide advantages including the avoidance of space-charge blow-up.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2002
    Publication date: February 27, 2003
    Inventors: Clarence E. Thomas, Larry R. Baylor, Edgar Voelkl, Michael L. Simpson, Michael J. Paulus, Douglas Lowndes, John H. Whealton, John C. Whitson, John B. Wilgen
  • Patent number: 6525821
    Abstract: Improvements to the acquisition and replay systems for direct-to-digital holography and holovision are described. A method of recording an off-axis hologram includes: splitting a laser beam into an object beam and a reference beam; reflecting the reference beam from a reference beam mirror; reflecting the object beam from an illumination beamsplitter; passing the object beam through an objective lens; reflecting the object beam from an object; focusing the reference beam and the object beam at a focal plane of a digital recorder to form an off-axis hologram; digitally recording the off-axis hologram; and transforming the off-axis hologram in accordance with a Fourier transform to obtain a set of results. A method of writing an off-axis hologram includes: passing a laser beam through a spatial light modulator; and focusing the laser beam at a focal plane of a photorefractive crystal to impose a holographic diffraction grating pattern on the photorefractive crystal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2003
    Assignee: UT-Battelle, L.L.C.
    Inventors: Clarence E. Thomas, Gregory R. Hanson
  • Publication number: 20030016364
    Abstract: Improvements to the acquisition and replay systems for direct-to-digital holography and holovision are described. A method of recording an off-axis hologram includes: splitting a laser beam into an object beam and a reference beam; reflecting the reference beam from a reference beam mirror; reflecting the object beam from an illumination beamsplitter; passing the object beam through an objective lens; reflecting the object beam from an object; focusing the reference beam and the object beam at a focal plane of a digital recorder to form an off-axis hologram; digitally recording the off-axis hologram; and transforming the off-axis hologram in accordance with a Fourier transform to obtain a set of results. A method of writing an off-axis hologram includes: passing a laser beam through a spatial light modulator; and focusing the laser beam at a focal plane of a photorefractive crystal to impose a holographic diffraction grating pattern on the photorefractive crystal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 11, 2002
    Publication date: January 23, 2003
    Inventors: Clarence E. Thomas, Gregory R. Hanson
  • Patent number: 6498349
    Abstract: Systems and methods are described for addressable field emission array (AFEA) chips. A method of operating an addressable field-emission array, includes: generating a plurality of electron beams from a pluralitly of emitters that compose the addressable field-emission array; and focusing at least one of the plurality of electron beams with an on-chip electrostatic focusing stack. The systems and methods provide advantages including the avoidance of space-charge blow-up.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2002
    Assignee: UT-Battelle
    Inventors: Clarence E. Thomas, Larry R. Baylor, Edgar Voelkl, Michael L. Simpson, Michael J. Paulus, Douglas H. Lowndes, John H. Whealton, John C. Whitson, John B. Wilgen
  • Patent number: 6421409
    Abstract: A method for ultra-high resolution computed tomography imaging, comprising the steps of: focusing a high energy particle beam, for example x-rays or gamma-rays, onto a target object; acquiring a 2-dimensional projection data set representative of the target object; generating a corrected projection data set by applying a deconvolution algorithm, having an experimentally determined a transfer function, to the 2-dimensional data set; storing the corrected projection data set; incrementally rotating the target object through an angle of approximately 180°, and after each the incremental rotation, repeating the radiating, acquiring, generating and storing steps; and, after the rotating step, applying a cone-beam algorithm, for example a modified tomographic reconstruction algorithm, to the corrected projection data sets to generate a 3-dimensional image. The size of the spot focus of the beam is reduced to not greater than approximately 1 micron, and even to not greater than approximately 0.5 microns.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2002
    Assignee: UT-Battelle LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. Paulus, Hamed Sari-Sarraf, Kenneth William Tobin, Jr., Shaun S. Gleason, Clarence E. Thomas, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6195412
    Abstract: A method for imaging a target volume comprises the steps of: radiating a small bandwidth of energy toward the target volume; focusing the small bandwidth of energy into a beam; moving the target volume through a plurality of positions within the focused beam; collecting a beam of energy scattered from the target volume with a non-diffractive confocal coded aperture; generating a shadow image of said aperture from every point source of radiation in the target volume; and, reconstructing the shadow image into a 3-dimensional image of the every point source by mathematically correlating the shadow image with a digital or analog version of the coded aperture. The method can comprise the step of collecting the beam of energy scattered from the target volume with a Fresnel zone plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2001
    Assignee: UT-Battelle, LLC
    Inventors: Kenneth William Tobin, Jr., Clarence E. Thomas, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6078392
    Abstract: Systems and methods for direct-to-digital holography are described. An apparatus includes a laser; a beamsplitter optically coupled to the laser; a reference beam mirror optically coupled to the beamsplitter; an object optically coupled to the beamsplitter, a focusing lens optically coupled to both the reference beam mirror and the object; and a digital recorder optically coupled to the focusing lens. A reference beam is incident upon the reference beam mirror at a non-normal angle, and the reference beam and an object beam are focused by the focusing lens at a focal plane of the digital recorder to form an image. The systems and methods provide advantages in that computer assisted holographic measurements can be made.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 1997
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2000
    Assignee: Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corp.
    Inventors: Clarence E. Thomas, Larry R. Baylor, Gregory R. Hanson, David A. Rasmussen, Edgar Voelkl, James Castracane, Michelle Simkulet, Lawrence Clow
  • Patent number: 5892231
    Abstract: Systems and methods for direct-to-digital holography are described. An apparatus includes a laser; a beamsplitter optically coupled to the laser; a reference beam mirror optically coupled to the beamsplitter; an object optically coupled to the beamsplitter, a focusing lens optically coupled to both the reference beam mirror and the object; and a digital recorder optically coupled to the focusing lens. A reference beam is incident upon the reference beam mirror at a non-normal angle, and the reference beam and an object beam are focused by the focusing lens at a focal plane of the digital recorder to form an image. The systems and methods provide advantages in that computer assisted holographic measurements can be made.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 1997
    Date of Patent: April 6, 1999
    Assignee: Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation
    Inventors: Larry R. Baylor, Clarence E. Thomas, Edgar Voelkl, James A. Moore, Michael L. Simpson, Michael J. Paulus