Patents by Inventor William A. Birdwell

William A. Birdwell 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: 6437762
    Abstract: A dynamic diffractive optical transform. An electric field pattern is created across a body of material, the material being characterized in that it has an optical transmission property which varies in response to of an electric potential applied across a portion thereof. The electric field pattern is created such that the resulting profile of the transmission property is an arbitrary shape which produces a desired diffraction pattern that may not be physically realizable in conventional refractive optics or is a Fresnel lens-like construct derived from a refractive optical element. This is done by selectively applying electric potentials to transparent electrode pairs having liquid crystal material therebetween and preferably relatively small proportions in relation to the relevant wavelength of light, so as to create variations in phase delay that are aperiodic, have other than fifty percent spatial duty factor or have multiple levels of phase delay.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2002
    Inventor: William A. Birdwell
  • Patent number: 6167110
    Abstract: A detector (20) for high voltage x-rays includes a plurality of sensor elements (22) with each sensor element being aligned along a respective focal axis (25) with respect to a high voltage x-ray source (24). A fiber optic scintillator (34) is optically coupled to each of said sensor elements and is disposed to receive incident x-ray radiation passing from the object to be imaged. Optical fibers of the scintillator are positioned such that their optical axes are perpendicular to incident x-rays. Each sensor element has a length along the focal axis sufficiently long for the fibers to absorb substantially all incident x-rays. Each sensor element comprises an array of amorphous silicon photosensors disposed to detect light generated by the scintillator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 1997
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2000
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Gerorge Edward Possin, Andrew Joseph Galish, Ralph Gerald Isaacs, Douglas Albagli, Ching-Yeu Wei, Thomas William Birdwell, Francis Howard Little, Sung Su Han
  • Patent number: 5877876
    Abstract: A dynamic diffractive optical transform. An electric field pattern is created across a body of material, the material being characterized in that it has an optical transmission property which varies in response to of an electric potential applied across a portion thereof. The electric field pattern is created such that the resulting profile of the transmission property is an arbitrary shape which produces a desired diffraction pattern that may not be physically realizable in conventional refractive optics or is a Fresnel lens-like construct derived from a refractive optical element. This is done by selectively applying electric potentials to transparent electrode pairs having liquid crystal material therebetween and preferably relatively small proportions in relation to the relevant wavelength of light, so as to create variations in phase delay that are aperiodic, have other than fifty percent spatial duty factor or have multiple levels of phase delay.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 1995
    Date of Patent: March 2, 1999
    Assignee: Apeldyn Corporation
    Inventor: William A. Birdwell