Patents by Inventor Norman Apsley

Norman Apsley 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: 4790635
    Abstract: An electro-optical device is arranged as a Fabry Perot etalon comprising two mirrors and a central region. The mirrors are multilayer heterostructures of Al.sub.x Ga.sub.1-x As semiconductor materials where x alternates between 1.0 and 0.3. The central region may be a multiple quantum well structure of Al.sub.x Ga.sub.1-x As where x alternates between 0 and 0.3. The etalon material doping is non-uniform so that it is electrically a semiconductor device with a biasable central region. The optical path length in the central region is electric field dependent, and the etalon transmission or reflection is accordingly modulatable by varying the central region bias. The mirrors may be heavily doped and of opposite conductivity type with the central region undoped. This provides a PIN diode. Light incident on the etalon executes multiple transits of the central region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 1987
    Date of Patent: December 13, 1988
    Assignee: The Secretary of State for Defence in Her Brittanic Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
    Inventor: Norman Apsley
  • Patent number: 4755820
    Abstract: An antenna device comprises a dielectric sheet substrate having an antenna patch on one surface and a ground plane on the other surface. A hemispherical dielectric lens is arranged over the antenna patch in intimate contact with it. The substrate and the lens are of low and high permittivity material respectively. The lens couples the antenna patch radiation away from the substrate. This avoids the inefficiency arising from power trapping in the substrate of a prior art microstrip patch antenna. The antenna device radiates into a comparatively narrow cone axially perpendicular to the antenna patch, and coupling of radiation from a power source to free space can theoretically be 100%. The antenna impedance is a function of its structural geometry, and is easily designed for impedance matching to a power source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 1986
    Date of Patent: July 5, 1988
    Assignee: The Secretary of State for Defence in Her Britannic Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
    Inventors: Paul M. Backhouse, Norman Apsley, Huw D. Rees