Patents by Inventor Nader Engheta
Nader Engheta 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).
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Patent number: 8264773Abstract: A grating structure for splitting light. The grating structure including alternating ridges and grooves. The ridges and grooves are configured such that the grating directs p-polarization components of incident light to the ?1st order diffraction mode and s-polarization components of incident light to the 0th order diffraction mode.Type: GrantFiled: May 1, 2009Date of Patent: September 11, 2012Assignees: Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, Inc., The Trustees of the University of PennsylvaniaInventors: Hideo Iizuka, Nader Engheta
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Patent number: 8254227Abstract: A frequency-modulated coding and data recording and storage device that uses plasmonic-dielectric nanostructures of concentric two-layer core-shell design to store data includes a flat transparent substrate having a top surface divided into cells with side dimension d on the order of tens of nanometers and a core-shell plasmonic-dielectric nanostructure disposed in each cell. Each plasmonic nanostructure of concentric core-shell has a predetermined ratio of radii and a predetermined aspect ratio such that when an infrared or visible wavelength signal is applied to each said core-shell plasmonic-dielectric nanostructure a peak scattering amplitude of the applied signal is at different plasmonic resonance frequencies for core-shell plasmonic-dielectric nanostructures with different ratio of radii and different aspect ratios.Type: GrantFiled: May 10, 2006Date of Patent: August 28, 2012Assignee: The Trustees Of The University Of PennsylvaniaInventors: Nader Engheta, Alessandro Salandrino
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Publication number: 20120075703Abstract: A double-sided grating divider acts as a light switch where the upper and lower grating dividers are arranged to accommodate a relative lateral shift therebetween of about one-fourth of the period of the diffraction grating elements and where the critical refraction angles of the grating dividers are more than about 43.6°. Lateral shift may be achieved by various devices including MEMS and metal couplers having a known/calibrated thermal coefficient of expansion over a temperature range of interest.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 2, 2011Publication date: March 29, 2012Applicants: The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, Inc.Inventors: Hideo IIZUKA, Nader ENGHETA
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Publication number: 20120038987Abstract: Optical devices using double-groove diffraction gratings having periodic sets of TiO2 elements on one or more surfaces of an SiO2 substrate are disclosed. First order components of incident polarized light coupled into the substrate are reflected so as to propagate through the substrate to terminus points where they either change direction for further propagation or exit the substrate. A windshield display system using the principles of the invention is disclosed.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 13, 2010Publication date: February 16, 2012Applicants: Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, Inc.Inventors: Hideo IIZUKA, Nader ENGHETA
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Patent number: 8116009Abstract: Far-field sub-diffraction optical lenses “FaSDOLs” comprise an anisotropic crystal having special dispersion characteristics such that it supports diffraction free propagation. An image with subwavelength features on the input surface is transferred through a propagation function to the output surface with effectively no, or minimal, loss in information. These special properties may be exploited in several ways, including but not limited to, magnification of an image at the input surface through the use an oblique cut at the output surface, magnification of an image at the input surface through use of a curved crystalline structure, and more generally near-field optical processing.Type: GrantFiled: May 16, 2007Date of Patent: February 14, 2012Assignee: The Trustees Of The University Of PennsylvaniaInventors: Nader Engheta, Alessandro Salandrino, Brian Edwards
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Patent number: 8098430Abstract: A grating structure having a fused silica base includes alternating ridges and grooves. The ridges and grooves form a fused silica to air interface. The ridges and grooves are configured such that the grating has a ratio between the effective refractive index difference between s-polarization and p-polarization of about 1/3. As such, for non-polarized light with an incident angle ?in of between 40° and 90° and a wavelength ?=350-1600 nm, the grating directs both s-polarization and p-polarization components of the incident light to the ?1st order diffraction mode.Type: GrantFiled: May 1, 2009Date of Patent: January 17, 2012Assignees: Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, Inc., The Trustees of the University of PennsylvaniaInventors: Hideo Iizuka, Nader Engheta
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Patent number: 8072684Abstract: A double-sided grating divider acts as a light switch where the upper and lower grating dividers are arranged to accommodate a relative lateral shift therebetween of about one-fourth of the period of the diffraction grating elements and where the critical refraction angles of the grating dividers are more than about 43.6°. Lateral shift may be achieved by various devices including MEMS and metal couplers having a known/calibrated thermal coefficient of expansion over a temperature range of interest.Type: GrantFiled: January 25, 2010Date of Patent: December 6, 2011Assignees: Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc., The Trustees of The University of PennsylvaniaInventors: Hideo Iizuka, Nader Engheta
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Publication number: 20110205617Abstract: A photonic crystal structure that is composed of a host media having periodic dielectric holes disposed in the media at a period of ah. Each dielectric hole has a radius rh. The host media has an absolute refractive index expressed as |nh| that is less than 0.2. The photonic crystal structure has at least one reflection minimization layer disposed at an air/photonic crystal interface. The reflection minimization layer has periodic dielectric holes disposed therein at a period am with each dielectric hole having a radius rm such that ah=am and rm>rn and a beam steerable device including the photonic crystal structure. The device having a scanning rate of larger than 1 KHz and a scanning angle up to ±25 degrees.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 19, 2010Publication date: August 25, 2011Applicants: Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, Inc., The Trustees Of The University Of PennsylvaniaInventors: Hideo IIZUKA, Nader ENGHETA
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Publication number: 20110181956Abstract: A double-sided grating divider acts as a light switch where the upper and lower grating dividers are arranged to accommodate a relative lateral shift therebetween of about one-fourth of the period of the diffraction grating elements and where the critical refraction angles of the grating dividers are more than about 43.6°. Lateral shift may be achieved by various devices including MEMS and metal couplers having a known/calibrated thermal coefficient of expansion over a temperature range of interest.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 25, 2010Publication date: July 28, 2011Applicants: Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, Inc., The Trustees of the University of PennsylvaniaInventors: Hideo IIZUKA, Nader ENGHETA
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Publication number: 20110181957Abstract: A light switch (or valve) made up of two mutually inverted, substantially identical diffraction gratings with a liquid medium therebetween, arranged to allow the grating substrates to be shifted laterally relative to one another so as to align and mis-align the grating elements. When aligned, incident-polarized light passes through the switch and when misaligned, light does not pass through the switch but is reflected.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 4, 2011Publication date: July 28, 2011Applicants: Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, Inc., TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIAInventors: Hideo IIZUKA, Nader ENGHETA, Hisayoshi FUJIKAWA
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Publication number: 20110139234Abstract: A grating structure and a solar cell assembly. In one aspect, the grating structure suppresses the zero order transmission to near 0%. In another aspect, the solar cell assembly has improved absorption due to coupling with a grating structure.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 15, 2009Publication date: June 16, 2011Applicants: Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, Inc., The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania Office of Research Services, Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratories, Inc.Inventors: Hideo Iizuka, Nader Engheta, Yasuhiko Takeda
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Publication number: 20100277937Abstract: A grating structure having a fused silica base includes alternating ridges and grooves. The ridges and grooves form a fused silica to air interface. The ridges and grooves are configured such that the grating has a ratio between the effective refractive index difference between s-polarization and p-polarization of about 1/3. As such, for non-polarized light with an incident angle ?in of between 40° and 90° and a wavelength ?=350-1600 nm, the grating directs both s-polarization and p-polarization components of the incident light to the ?1st order diffraction mode.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 1, 2009Publication date: November 4, 2010Applicant: Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, Inc.Inventors: Hideo Ilzuka, Nader Engheta
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Publication number: 20100277797Abstract: A grating structure for splitting light. The grating structure including alternating ridges and grooves. The ridges and grooves are configured such that the grating directs p-polarization components of incident light to the ?1st order diffraction mode and s-polarization components of incident light to the 0th order diffraction mode.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 1, 2009Publication date: November 4, 2010Applicant: Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, Inc.Inventors: Hideo Ilzuka, Nader Engheta
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Publication number: 20100025708Abstract: A lumped nanocircuit element design at IR and optical frequencies is provided that can effectively act as a lumped “diode” and a lumped “rectifier” for rectifying optical field displacement currents or optical electric field. The lumped nanocircuit element design can also act as a lumped second harmonic generator. The element is formed by juxtaposing an epsilon-negative nanoparticle with a nonlinear optical nanostructure.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 10, 2007Publication date: February 4, 2010Applicant: The Trustees of the University of PennsylvaniaInventor: Nader Engheta
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Publication number: 20100013965Abstract: Shadow is an inseparable aspect of all natural scenes. When there are multiple light sources or multiple reflections several different shadows may overlap at the same location and create complicated patterns. Shadows are a potentially good source of information about a scene if the shadow regions can be properly identified and segmented. However, shadow region identification and segmentation is a difficult task and improperly identified shadows often interfere with machine vision tasks like object recognition and tracking. A shadow separation and contrast enhancement method based on the polarization of light is provided. Polarization information of scenes is captured by a polarization-sensitive camera and the scenes are processed to effectively separate shadows from different light sources.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 17, 2007Publication date: January 21, 2010Applicant: The Trustees of the University of PennsylvaniaInventors: Edward N. Pugh, JR., Nader Engheta
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Publication number: 20090303578Abstract: Far-field sub-diffraction optical lenses “FaSDOLs” comprise an anisotropic crystal having special dispersion characteristics such that it supports diffraction free propagation. An image with subwavelength features on the input surface is transferred through a propagation function to the output surface with effectively no, or minimal, loss in information. These special properties may be exploited in several ways, including but not limited to, magnification of an image at the input surface through the use an oblique cut at the output surface, magnification of an image at the input surface through use of a curved crystalline structure, and more generally near-field optical processing.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 16, 2007Publication date: December 10, 2009Inventors: Nader Engheta, Alessandro Salandrino, Brian Edwards
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Patent number: 7582857Abstract: A polarimetric imaging system employs a pixel pitch matched filter for use within, for example, a 2 by 2 pixel neighborhood, in which one pixel samples the scene via a 0 degree polarization filter and a second pixel samples the scene via a 45 degree polarization filter. The remaining two pixels record the intensity of the light within the 2 by 2 neighborhoods. The polarization filters employ organic materials such as polymers or metallic materials that are patterned and etched using reactive ion etching (RIE) or other appropriate etching technique in order to create 14 micron or smaller circular (or square) periodic structures that are patterned into polarization thin films that are deposited on an imaging sensor that includes a processor that computes from the polarization-filtered inputs the first three Stokes parameters in real-time.Type: GrantFiled: April 18, 2006Date of Patent: September 1, 2009Assignee: The Trustees of The University of PennsylvaniaInventors: Viktor Gruev, Jan Van der Spiegel, Nader Engheta
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Publication number: 20090080297Abstract: A frequency-modulated coding and data recording and storage device that uses plasmonic-dielectric nanostructures of concentric two-layer core-shell design to store data includes a flat transparent substrate having a top surface divided into cells with side dimension d on the order of tens of nanometers and a core-shell plasmonic-dielectric nanostructure disposed in each cell. Each plasmonic nanostructure of concentric core-shell has a predetermined ratio of radii and a predetermined aspect ratio such that when an infrared or visible wavelength signal is applied to each said core-shell plasmonic-dielectric nanostructure a peak scattering amplitude of the applied signal is at different plasmonic resonance frequencies for core-shell plasmonic-dielectric nanostructures with different ratio of radii and different aspect ratios.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 10, 2006Publication date: March 26, 2009Applicant: Trustees of the University of PennsylvaniaInventors: Nader Engheta, Alessandro Salandrino
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Patent number: 7489391Abstract: An optical fingerprinting method extracts high quality latent fingerprints from a surface without any invasive chemical or physical contact with the examined object, and requires no cooperation of the subject. Rather than employing extraneous material, the optical properties of the latent fingerprint are used to generate one or more images with sufficient contrast to distinguish the latent fingerprint or some other deformation in the surface. The system includes a light source oriented to apply light at an angle of incidence to the surface at the position to be examined for the latent fingerprint or deformation, a camera oriented to receive light specularly and diffusely reflected from the surface and/or by the fingerprint or deformation on the surface, and a processor that performs the computation for digital contrast enhancement and/or reprojection of the recovered fingerprint image to a frontal view if necessary.Type: GrantFiled: April 27, 2005Date of Patent: February 10, 2009Assignee: The Trustees Of The University Of PennsylvaniaInventors: Nader Engheta, Edward N. Pugh, Jr., Shih-Schon Lin, Konstantin Marianovich Yemelyanov
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Publication number: 20080289965Abstract: The present invention is directed to the use of dielectrophoretic forces for the arbitrary manipulation of micrometer- and nanometer-sized particles and to devices capable of arbitrarily manipulating micrometer- and nanometer-sized particles by means of dielectrophoretic forces within a two- or three-dimensional region. The devices and methods of the invention are capable of arbitrarily controlling the velocities, locations, and forces applied to a particle, arbitrarily specifying a force or set of forces at a location in space, and determining friction and/or drag coefficients of a particle, and are thus well-suited for a range of applications including cell sorting, drug delivery, as a diagnostic tool for determining membrane stiffness, and in the heterogeneous integration of micro- and nano-components through directed assembly.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 21, 2006Publication date: November 27, 2008Applicant: THE TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIAInventors: Nader Engheta, Brian Edwards