Patents by Inventor Greg Nau

Greg Nau 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: 6744035
    Abstract: A passive, temperature compensated tunable filter calibration device in a Bragg-grating interrogation system. The invention comprises two systems: 1) a dual substrate Bragg grating calibration system, the temperature of an array of gratings is estimated using an array of gratings bonded to a common host substrate and a single grating bonded to a material with a different coefficient of thermal expansion; 2) a hydrogen cyanide wavelength reference absorption cell that absorbs light at discrete wavelengths corresponding to the molecular vibration mode frequencies of the gas. A first photodetector sees the transmission spectrum and a second sees the reflections from Bragg gratings in a sensing array. In this system there is no temperature compensation step as the absorption lines are not sensitive to temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2004
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Gregg A. Johnson, Bryan L. Althouse, Greg Nau, Sandeep T. Vohra
  • Publication number: 20030218124
    Abstract: A passive, temperature compensated tunable filter calibration device for a Bragg grating interrogation system. In a first system, a dual-substrate Bragg grating calibration system, the temperature of an array of gratings is estimated using an array of gratings bonded to a common host substrate and a single grating bonded to a material with a different coefficient of thermal expansion. Changes in a common temperature of the substrates is measured by monitoring the difference between shifts of grating wavelength. As a filter voltage is scanned from its lowest to its highest voltage, the voltages are recorded. The second lowest wavelength corresponds to the grating attached to the differing substrate. The voltages are used to calculate a voltage-to-wavelength function for the scanning range of the filter. To compensate for variations in a calibration curve and temperature variations of the calibration array, the temperature is estimated and function re-calculated at every pass of the scanning filter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 17, 2003
    Publication date: November 27, 2003
    Inventors: Gregg A. Johnson, Bryan L. Althouse, Greg Nau, Sandeep T. Vohra
  • Patent number: 6573489
    Abstract: A passive, temperature compensated tunable filter calibration device for a Bragg grating interrogation system. In a first system, a dual-substrate Bragg grating calibration system, the temperature of an array of gratings is estimated using an array of gratings bonded to a common host substrate and a single grating bonded to a material with a different coefficient of thermal expansion. Changes in a common temperature of the substrates is measured by monitoring the difference between shifts of grating wavelength. As a filter voltage is scanned from its lowest to its highest voltage, the voltages are recorded. The second lowest wavelength corresponds to the grating attached to the differing substrate. The voltages are used to calculate a voltage-to-wavelength function for the scanning range of the filter. To compensate for variations in a calibration curve and temperature variations of the calibration array, the temperature is estimated and function re-calculated at every pass of the scanning filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2003
    Assignee: The United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Gregg A. Johnson, Bryan L. Althouse, Greg Nau, Sandeep T. Vohra