Patents by Inventor Frank Crowne

Frank Crowne 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: 8143578
    Abstract: A detector for electromagnetic radiation such as millimeter wave and infrared employs a ring-shaped ferroelectric element having a temperature affected by an absorber for the radiation. The dielectric constant of the ferroelectric material is a strong function of the temperature near its Curie temperature. The resonant frequency of the ferroelectric element is detected by applying a swept-frequency signal to the circuit and detecting the frequency which enhances the energy of the pulse. A two-dimensional camera for the radiation employs a two-dimensional array of these ferroelectric resonant circuits and a system for rapidly interrogating their resonant frequencies on a sequential basis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2012
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army
    Inventors: Steven C. Tidrow, Frank Crowne, Daniel Potrepka, Bernard J. Rod
  • Publication number: 20100264325
    Abstract: A detector for electromagnetic radiation such as millimeter wave and infrared employs a ring-shaped ferroelectric element having a temperature affected by an absorber for the radiation. The dielectric constant of the ferroelectric material is a strong function of the temperature near its Curie temperature. The resonant frequency of the ferroelectric element is detected by applying a swept-frequency signal to the circuit and detecting the frequency which enhances the energy of the pulse. A two-dimensional camera for the radiation employs a two-dimensional array of these ferroelectric resonant circuits and a system for rapidly interrogating their resonant frequencies on a sequential basis.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 21, 2009
    Publication date: October 21, 2010
    Inventors: Steven C. Tidrow, Frank Crowne, Daniel Potrepka, Bernard J. Rod
  • Patent number: 7148842
    Abstract: A delay line is made by sandwiching a thin slice of ferroelectric between two “cladding” layers of relatively low-?, low loss material to form a dielectric slab waveguide, and may support the propagation of electromagnetic guided waves and hence be used as a source of electric-field tunable time delay. There is a frequency range within which a dielectric-slab delay line behaves like a homogeneous transmission line with an “average” dielectric constant that is much lower than that of the ferroelectric, thereby ameliorating the difficulty with the high dielectric constant of the ferroelectric material. The thin slice of ferroelectric material “expels” a large fraction of the wave electric field, causing most of it to occupy the low-loss cladding material, greatly reducing the propagation loss along the delay line while allowing delay time to be varied by applying an electric-field through the ferroelectric within the cladding structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2006
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army
    Inventors: Frank Crowne, Steve C. Tidrow