Patents by Inventor Susan M. Raffensperger

Susan M. Raffensperger 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: 5471326
    Abstract: A holographic optical element (HOE) includes a substrate structure having rotational symmetry with respect to a rotational axis for rotatively supporting at least two holograms. A first hologram on the substrate structure in the path of a normally incident beam diffracts the beam by a first acute angle and in a first radial direction from the rotational axis to a first redirected path. A second hologram on the substrate structure in the first redirected path diffracts the beam by a different second acute angle and in an opposite second radial direction from the rotational axis to a second redirected path. As a result, the two holograms may be used to achieve a second redirected path at an angle to the rotational axis that has a size which is the difference between the size of the first angle and the size of the second angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 1993
    Date of Patent: November 28, 1995
    Assignee: Northrop Grumman Corporation
    Inventors: James T. Hall, Arthur B. O'Connor, Susan M. Raffensperger, Seymour Levine
  • Patent number: 5206499
    Abstract: A star tracker for generating positional information for a vehicle includes a holographic telescope (150) having one or more fields of view for imaging stellar objects. The telescope includes a plurality of radiation detectors (100) and an input aperture comprised of a primary holographic optical element (HOE) (134). The primary HOE provides one or more wavefronts to one or more secondary HOEs (136), each of which applies a chromatic correction so as to correct for a chromatic aberration induced by the primary HOE. A single or multiple field of view Schmidt telescope embodiment is also disclosed having one or more aspheric corrector plate HOEs and one or more associated concave spherical reflectors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 1991
    Date of Patent: April 27, 1993
    Assignee: Northrop Corporation
    Inventors: Murty V. Mantravadi, Susan M. Raffensperger, Phillip Simpson, Douglas R. Jungwirth, Seymour Levine