From Grating Patents (Class 359/566)
  • Patent number: 11227958
    Abstract: An integrated circuit includes a photodetector. The photodetector includes a circular optical grating formed in an annular trench in a semiconductor substrate. The circular optical grating includes dielectric fins and photosensitive fins positioned in the annular trench. The circular optical grating is configured to receive incident light and to direct the incident light around the annular trench through the dielectric fins and the photosensitive fins until the light is absorbed by one of the photosensitive fins.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2022
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Tao-Cheng Liu, Tsai-Hao Hung, Ying-Hsun Chen
  • Patent number: 11215744
    Abstract: In some embodiments, compositions and methods comprising reflective flowable materials, e.g., reflective liquids including reflective inks and/or liquid metals, are described. In some embodiments, a surface is contacted with a reflective flowable material, thereby forming a reflective layer on the surface. In some embodiments, the surface is a surface of a waveguide, for example a waveguide for a display device, and the flowable material coats surfaces of protrusions on the surface to form reflective diffractive optical elements. Some embodiments include a display device comprising a reflective layer of reflective flowable material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: Magic Leap, Inc.
    Inventors: Marlon Edward Menezes, Jeffrey Dean Schmulen, Neal Paul Ricks, Victor Kai Liu, Zongxing Wang, David Carl Jurbergs
  • Patent number: 11099309
    Abstract: A pupil replication waveguide for a projector display includes a slab of transparent material for propagating display light in the slab via total internal reflection. A diffraction grating is supported by the slab. The diffraction grating includes a plurality of tapered slanted fringes in a substrate for out-coupling the display light from the slab by diffraction into a blazed diffraction order. A greater portion of the display light is out-coupled into the blazed diffraction order, and a smaller portion of the display light is out-coupled into a non-blazed diffraction order. The tapered fringes result in the duty cycle of the diffraction grating varying along the thickness direction of the diffraction grating, to facilitate suppressing the portion of the display light out-coupled into the non-blazed diffraction order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignee: FACEBOOK TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
    Inventors: Hee Yoon Lee, Ningfeng Huang, Pasi Saarikko, Yu Shi, Giuseppe Calafiore, Nihar Ranjan Mohanty
  • Patent number: 11073688
    Abstract: Head mounted display device for very large field of view virtual reality experience, adapted to be mounted on a user's head, the head mounted display device including at least on image display, at least two eyepieces associated to each of the user's eyes and arranged between the image display(s) and the location of one of the user's eyes, each eyepiece having at least one Fresnel surface, wherein the at least one Fresnel surface of each eyepiece is planar and is arranged at an angle below 70°, preferably at an angle between 45° and 70°, in particular at an angle between 50° and 67.5° relative to the on-axis field gaze direction and where the surface optical center of the at least one Fresnel surface is decentered relative to the on-axis field gaze direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2021
    Assignee: STARBREEZE IP LUX II S.À R.L.
    Inventors: Lionel Anton, David Batte
  • Patent number: 11048155
    Abstract: Disclosed are a diffractive optical assembly, a laser projection unit, and a depth camera. The diffractive optical assembly includes a sealing assembly and a diffractive optical element. The sealing assembly includes a light transparent first sealing plate, a light transparent second sealing plate, and a spacer. The first sealing plate and the second sealing plate are arranged opposite to each other. The spacers spaces the first sealing plate and the second sealing plate apart. The first sealing plate, the second sealing plate and the spacer cooperatively defines a closed receiving cavity. The diffractive optical element is accommodated in the receiving cavity. The diffractive optical element includes a light transparent diffractive body and a diffractive structure formed on the diffractive body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP., LTD.
    Inventor: Xueyong Zhang
  • Patent number: 10971642
    Abstract: The solar photovoltaic photoconverter unit (1) comprises a light processing opto-photonic platform (2) realized by at least one transparent substrate (8) is having on, at least one, of its faces a digital diffractive grating constituted by slanted ribs (11) that are modulated to harvest a maximum of solar light at any angle of incidence to split it into several spectral sub-bands, to guide and to concentrate individually every one of these spectral sub-band, toward a separate output of the opto-photonic platform (2) for allowing its exploitation by a light-to-electricity conversion unit (3) that will have by optimization a grate overall conversion efficiency. The opto-photonic platform (2) also includes photonic converters (13) and (14) converting ultraviolet light into visible light and also infrared light in visible light for a better exploitation of the energy present in the solar light and so increasing the light to electricity conversion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2021
    Assignee: SEGTON ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Zbigniew Kuznicki, Patrick Meyrueis
  • Patent number: 10935799
    Abstract: A method of forming an optical grating component. The method may include providing a substrate, the substrate comprising an underlayer and a hard mask layer, disposed on the underlayer. The method may include patterning the hard mask layer to define a grating field and etching the underlayer within the grating field to define a variable height of the underlayer along a first direction, the first direction being parallel to a plane of the substrate. The method may include forming an optical grating within the grating field using an angled ion etch, the optical grating comprising a plurality of angled structures, disposed at a non-zero angle of inclination with respect to a perpendicular to a plane of the substrate, wherein the plurality of angled structures define a variable depth along the first direction, based upon the variable height of the underlayer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Rutger Meyer Timmerman Thijssen, Ludovic Godet, Morgan Evans, Joseph C. Olson
  • Patent number: 10895671
    Abstract: Ion implantation is used to fabricate an optical device having a varying refractive index. The optical device can include a substrate with a material disposed on the substrate. A refractive index of the material is changed by ion implantation. The material can also be etched or imprinted. The optical device can be used in a virtual-reality system or augmented-reality system to provide angular selectivity from a display to a user's eye.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2021
    Assignee: FACEBOOK TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
    Inventors: Giuseppe Calafiore, Austin Lane, Matthew E. Colburn, Nihar Ranjan Mohanty
  • Patent number: 10890746
    Abstract: A microscope objective lens includes, in order from an object side, a first lens group having positive refractive power, a second lens group having positive refractive power, and a third lens group having negative refractive power, and is configured such that the first lens group includes, on the most object side, a positive meniscus lens whose concave surface is directed to the object side, such that the second lens group includes a diffractive optical element having positive refractive power, and such that the diffractive optical element is arranged at a position closer to the image than a portion at which the diameter of a light flux passing through the first lens group and the second lens group is the larges.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: NIKON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Miwako Yoshida
  • Patent number: 10877275
    Abstract: An image guide comprising glass or plastic planar substrate, a first hologram area, a second hologram area, and a third hologram area which are formed on the substrate as surface relief grating, period and direction of diffraction structure of the first, second, and third hologram areas have a relationship which is a sum of grating vectors of the first, second, and third hologram areas becomes zero, depth of diffraction structure on the first hologram area is a uniform in the own hologram area, and depth of diffraction structure on the second or third hologram area is chirped in the own hologram area increases luminance and uniformity of virtual image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignees: HITACHI, LTD., Arizona Board of Regents on Behalf of the University Of Arizona
    Inventors: Toshiteru Nakamura, Yuzuru Takashima
  • Patent number: 10866426
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a light source such as a laser light source. The light source may emit light into a waveguide. A phase grating may diffract the light that is emitted into the waveguide to produce diffracted light. The diffracted light may be oriented parallel to a surface normal of an angled edge of the waveguide and parallel to a surface normal of a microelectromechanical systems mirror element in a two-dimensional scanning microelectromechanical systems mirror that is coupled to the edge of the waveguide. A wave plate may be interposed between the mirror and the edge of the waveguide to change the polarization state of light reflected from the mirror element relative to incoming diffracted light from the phase grating. The phase grating may be configured so that the reflected light is not diffracted by the phase grating.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Eric J. Hansotte, Byron R. Cocilovo, Se Baek Oh, Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, Francesco Aieta
  • Patent number: 10868899
    Abstract: A method to provide compressive stress to substrates includes depositing a film on a ceramic substrate at a deposition temperature (Td) to form an article, the film having a difference relative to the ceramic substrate at Td in a coefficient thermal expansion (CTE) of at least 1.0×10?6/K and a difference in a refractive index >0.10. At least a portion of the thickness the film is converted in at least one of composition, phase and microstructure by lowering or raising the temperature from Td to reach a changed temperature (Tc) that is at least 100° C. different from Td. The film converting conditions result in the converted film portion providing a difference in refractive index at the Tc between the converted film and the ceramic substrate of ?|0.10|. The temperature of the article is then lowered to room temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2020
    Assignees: ENTEGRIS, INC., UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA RESEARCH FOUNDATION, INC.
    Inventors: Rajiv K. Singh, Deepika Singh
  • Patent number: 10852640
    Abstract: An optical diffraction component is configured to suppress at least one target wavelength by destructive interference. The optical diffraction component includes at least three diffraction structure levels that are assignable to at least two diffraction structure groups. A first of the diffraction structure groups is configured to suppress a first target wavelength ?1. A second of the diffraction structure groups is configured to suppress a second target wavelength ?2, where (?1??2)2/(?1+?2)2<20%. A topography of the diffraction structure levels can be described as a superimposition of two binary diffraction structure groups. Boundary regions between adjacent surface sections of each of the binary diffraction structure groups have a linear course and are superimposed on one another at most along sections of the linear course.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2020
    Assignee: Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH
    Inventors: Heiko Feldmann, Valentin Bolsinger, William Peter Van Drent, Jozef Petrus Henricus Benschop
  • Patent number: 10845515
    Abstract: A contacted multilayer diffractive optical element having reduced wavelength dependency of diffraction efficiency, the contacted multilayer diffractive optical element facilitating processing in manufacture and being suitable for an infrared optical system, and an infrared optical system and an image pickup apparatus using the diffractive optical element. In order to achieve the above object, a contacted multilayer diffractive optical element comprises a first layer consisting of a first chalcogenide glass material and a second layer consisting of a second chalcogenide glass material, the first chalcogenide glass material and the second chalcogenide glass material satisfying a predetermined conditional expression and being in contact with and stacked on each other, and a diffraction grating structure in a surface of the contact therebetween, and an infrared optical system and an image pickup apparatus comprising the contacted multilayer diffractive optical element are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2020
    Assignee: Tamron Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Kazunori Komori
  • Patent number: 10797633
    Abstract: A thermal emitter including a substrate and a grating arranged atop the substrate, the grating includes a plurality of equidistant structures having a cross-section with a trapezoid shape. Material of the substrate and the grating converts incoming heat into radiation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2020
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Bingnan Wang, Chungwei Lin, Jianjian Wang, Koon Hoo Teo
  • Patent number: 10761256
    Abstract: Provided is a backlight unit including a light source emitting coherent light, a light guide plate propagating the light emitted by the light source, an input grating inputting the light from the light source into the light guide plate, an output grating provided on one surface of the light guide plate and diffracting light incident from inside the light guide plate and outputting the light, in a direction toward the outside of the light guide plate, a first recuperation element provided on one surface of the light guide plate and including a first recycle grating, and a second recuperation element provided opposite to the first recuperation element and directing, to the first recuperation element, incident light that is propagating inside the light guide plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2020
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: German B. Dubinin, Sergey E. Dubynin, Aleksander V. Morozov, Andrey N. Putilin, Sergey S. Kopenkin, Yuriy P. Borodin, Jungkwuen An, Chilsung Choi, Hongseok Lee, Hoon Song, Sunil Kim
  • Patent number: 10697831
    Abstract: A light modulating device includes a dispersion assembly and a lens assembly, the dispersion assembly is configured to disperse light emitting from a light source into dispersed light which at least includes collimated monochromatic light and non-collimated monochromatic light; the lens assembly includes: at least a first lens component; at least a second lens component disposed in a one-to-one correspondence with the first lens component; a first absorbing layer disposed between the first lens component and the second lens component, the first absorbing layer has an opening, a focus point of the first lens component towards the first absorbing layer coincides with a focus point of the second lens component towards the first absorbing layer, the opening is disposed at the coincident focus point of the first lens component and the second lens component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2020
    Assignee: BOE TECHNOLOGY GROUP CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Xiandong Meng, Xianqin Meng, Wei Wang, Jifeng Tan, Fangzhou Wang, Qiuyu Ling, Xiaochuan Chen, Jian Gao
  • Patent number: 10690941
    Abstract: Disclosed is a lens arrangement, in particular a spectacle lens arrangement, having a base lens element, wherein the base lens element has a first surface and wherein the first surface has a first optically effective region, wherein the first surface has an elongate recess and wherein the elongate recess extends adjacent to the first optically effective region and at least partly encompasses the first optically effective region. Moreover, methods for producing a lens arrangement are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: tooz technologies GmbH
    Inventors: Joerg Puetz, Jens Prochnau, Ralf Meschenmoser
  • Patent number: 10690821
    Abstract: Methods of producing gratings with trenches having variable height and width are provided. In one example, a method includes providing an optical grating layer atop a substrate, and providing a patterned hardmask over the optical grating layer. The method may include forming a mask over just a portion of the optical grating layer and the patterned hardmask, and etching a plurality of trenches into the optical grating layer to form an optical grating. After trench formation, at least one of the following grating characteristics varies between one or more trenches of the plurality of trenches: a trench depth and a trench width.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Morgan Evans, Rutger Meyer Timmerman Thijssen, Megan Clark
  • Patent number: 10690846
    Abstract: A light projecting system comprises: a waveguide comprising a first surface, a second surface, and a fourth surface, at least one of the first surface or the second surface comprising a first plurality of grating structures; a light source coupling light into the waveguide to form an in-coupled light beam, wherein: each of the first grating structures is configured to disrupt the total internal reflection to cause at least a portion of the in-coupled light beam to couple out of the waveguide, and a remainder beam of the in-coupled light beam undergoing the total internal reflection being coupled out of the waveguide after the out-coupling at each of the first grating structures; a detector configured to receive and measure the remainder beam; and a processor coupled to the detector and configured to determine if a dangerous condition occurs based on the measured remainder beam.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Shenzhen Guangjian Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Fanglu Lyu, Yi Rao
  • Patent number: 10671868
    Abstract: A vision system for a vehicle includes a control and smart eye glasses worn by a driver of the vehicle. The smart eye glasses include a driver monitoring camera that has a field of view that encompasses at least one eye of the driver when wearing the smart eye glasses. The control includes an image processor that processes image data captured by the driver monitoring camera to determine drowsiness of the driver. Responsive to determination that the driver is drowsy, the control communicates a signal to a portable device in the vehicle and the portable device in the vehicle generates an alert to the driver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: MAGNA ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventor: Krishna Koravadi
  • Patent number: 10670802
    Abstract: A method of making an optical fiber sensor device for distributed sensing includes generating a laser beam comprising a plurality of ultrafast pulses, and focusing the laser beam into a core of an optical fiber to form a nanograting structure within the core, wherein the nanograting structure includes a plurality of spaced nanograting elements each extending substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of optical fiber. Also, an optical fiber sensor device for distributed sensing includes an optical fiber having a longitudinal axis, a core, and a nanograting structure within the core, wherein the nanograting structure includes a plurality of spaced nanograting elements each extending substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the optical fiber. Also, a distributed sensing method and system and an energy production system that employs such an optical fiber sensor device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: University of Pittsburgh—Of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education
    Inventors: Peng Kevin Chen, Aidong Yan, Michael P. Buric, Paul R. Ohodnicki, Sheng Huang
  • Patent number: 10670783
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are metasurfaces formed on a substrate from a plurality of posts. The metasurfaces are configured to be optically active at one or more wavelengths and in certain embodiments are configured to form lenses having unexpectedly strong focusing power. In particular, the metasurfaces are formed from “low-contrast” materials, including CMOS-compatible materials such as silicon dioxide or silicon nitride. Accordingly, the disclosed metasurfaces are generally CMOS compatible and therefore embody a new paradigm in metasurface design and manufacturing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: University of Washington
    Inventors: Alan Zhan, Shane Colburn, Arka Majumdar
  • Patent number: 10649223
    Abstract: A reticle includes an illumination device having an optical component configured to introduce light from a light source into the reticle. The optical component has an entrance face and a reflecting face for the light of the light source. Two parallel bounding surfaces that are oriented perpendicular to an optical axis have an optical marking. A peripheral edge joins the bounding surfaces. The optical component is disposed at the peripheral edge of the reticle such that the light of the light source enters the reticle via the entrance face and the reflecting face and impinges on the marking. The entrance face is configured to act as a collecting lens on which the light of the light source impinges divergently.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2020
    Assignee: IMT MASKEN UND TEILUNGEN AG
    Inventor: Winfried Arens
  • Patent number: 10582172
    Abstract: An optical system includes a light source, a film positioned to be illuminated by light from the light source, the film including a plurality of Bragg gratings configured to redirect the light, and an actuator configured to apply a shearing force to the film. The shearing force manipulates an orientation of the plurality of Bragg gratings to change an extent to which the plurality of Bragg gratings redirects the light and to thereby re-position a pupil at which the light converges after redirection by the plurality of Bragg gratings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventor: Adrian Travis
  • Patent number: 10578783
    Abstract: An optical grating (8) includes a substrate (9), on the surface (9a) of which a periodic structure (10) is formed that is embodied to diffract incident radiation (11), in particular incident EUV radiation, with a specified wavelength (??) into a predetermined order of diffraction, in particular into the first order of diffraction (m=+1). The optical grating also has a coating (12) applied onto the periodic structure with at least one layer (13, 14) that is embodied to suppress the diffraction of the incident radiation into at least one higher order of diffraction (m=+2, . . . ) than the predetermined order of diffraction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: CARL ZEISS SMT GMBH
    Inventors: Sebastian Brueck, Michael Gerhard, Vitaliy Shklover
  • Patent number: 10551546
    Abstract: A head-tracking multiview display and a system provide a plurality of views of a scene as a multiview image. The plurality of views includes a set of primary views of the scene and a secondary view representing a perspective view of the scene that is angularly adjacent to the primary view set. The display and system are multibeam diffraction grating-based and configured to selectively provide the primary view set and an augmented set of views that includes the secondary view and a subset of the views of the primary view set based on a tracked position of a user or a user's head. At a first position the display is configured to provide the primary view set and at a second position the display is configured to provide the augmented view set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2020
    Assignee: LEIA INC.
    Inventor: David A. Fattal
  • Patent number: 10509241
    Abstract: An apparatus for providing an optical display includes an optical substrate for propagating light received from a light source, a first set of one or more switchable diffractive elements in the substrate, and a second set of one or more switchable diffractive elements in the substrate. Each diffractive element in the second set corresponds to a diffractive element in the first set. Each of the diffractive elements in the first and second sets is configured to switch between on and off states. One of the states is for diffracting light and the other state for allowing light to pass through. Each of the first set of diffractive elements is configured to diffract the light at an angle for propagation in the substrate. Each of the second set of diffractive elements is configured to diffract the light for display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2019
    Assignees: ROCKWELL COLLINS, INC., DIGILENS INC.
    Inventors: Steven J. Robbins, James H. Stanley, Francois Raynal, Robert D. Brown, James M. Tedesco, Wyatt L. Hendrick, Milan M. Popovich, Jonathan D. Waldern, Alastair J. Grant
  • Patent number: 10443977
    Abstract: A compact sight device has a housing with a viewing and a target end. A light source projects a light beam along a path. A holographic optical element (HOE) is disposed in the path of the light beam such that the HOE is illuminated by the light beam at an incidence angle defined with respect to a line perpendicular to the surface of the HOE. The HOE reconstructs an object beam with an image of a reticle, the object beam having an object beam angle measured with respect to the line perpendicular to the surface of the HOE. The incidence angle and the object beam angle are substantially equal. The HOE further reflects a portion of the light beam at a reflection angle substantially equal to the object beam angle such that a user viewing the object beam will also see a reflected image of the light source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2019
    Assignee: Ziel Optics, Inc.
    Inventor: Fred Collin
  • Patent number: 10409220
    Abstract: An optically trapped atom transfer tweezer includes an optical modulator which modulates incident light and generates a first hologram; a first lens which images the first hologram on an intermediate image plane and generates a first holographic image having any potential shape; a second lens which re-images the first holographic image on an entrance pupil of a third lens; the third lens which re-images a second hologram generated by the re-imaging of the second lens on a plane where an optically trapped atom array exists; a photographing device which captures optically trapped cold atoms from a second holographic image generated on the plane where an optically trapped atom array exists; and a controller which controls the optical modulator to adjust the second holographic image on the basis of the optically trapped atom image captured by the photographing device such that the optically trapped atom array is transferred to any spatial position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2019
    Assignee: KOREA ADVANCED INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Jaewook Ahn, HyoSub Kim, Woojun Lee
  • Patent number: 10401620
    Abstract: A system and method for a head up display (HUD) can mitigate glare. The head up display can include a waveguide combiner including an input grating and an output grating and a glare mitigator disposed to prevent glare through the output grating from reaching an eye box. The glare mitigator can be a shade, a diffuser, a dimming element, or other device for mitigating glare. The glare mitigator can be an active or passive glare mitigator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: ROCKWELL COLLINS, INC.
    Inventors: Eric P. Stratton, Christopher M. Buchholz, Christopher A. Keith, Kurt A. Stahl, Brandon E. Wilson
  • Patent number: 10394060
    Abstract: An method for characterizing a modulator for fabricating a silicon photonics circuit and an apparatus (e.g., a silicon photonics wafer) made via the method are described. The method includes determining an absorption spectrum of a modulator and determining, based at least on the determined absorption spectrum, an operational bandwidth of the modulator. The method further includes selecting a laser for coupling with the modulator using the operational bandwidth of the modulator. In this way, the laser is selected such that it has an emission bandwidth that corresponds to the operational bandwidth of the modulator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2019
    Assignee: Mellanox Technologies, Ltd.
    Inventors: Elad Mentovich, Sylvie Rockman, Jacob Levy, Shai Cohen
  • Patent number: 10381532
    Abstract: A wavelength conversion device includes a light source for emitting light having a predetermined wavelength in a wavelength region from ultraviolet light to visible light, a phosphor layer for performing wavelength conversion on light which is emitted from the light source and incident on an incidence face, and an optical member which is arranged between the light source and the phosphor layer, splits and separates light emitted from the light source and emits the split and separated light beams to the incidence face of phosphor layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2019
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masahito Yamana, Noboru Iizawa, Jun Hirai, Yoshiyuki Nakano
  • Patent number: 10379272
    Abstract: Provided is an optical system including a front unit, an aperture stop and a rear unit which are arranged in order from an object side to an image side. The front unit includes a diffractive optical element, at least one first refractive optical element having a power in the same sign as a sign of a power at a diffractive surface of the diffractive optical element, and at least one second refractive optical element having a power in a different sign from the sign of the power at the diffractive surface. A partial dispersion ratio between a d-line and a C-line and a partial dispersion ratio between a g-line and the d-line of the at least one first refractive optical element and the at least one second refractive optical element are appropriately set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2019
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroto Yasui
  • Patent number: 10371876
    Abstract: In some embodiments, compositions and methods comprising reflective flowable materials, e.g., reflective liquids including reflective inks and/or liquid metals, are described. In some embodiments, a surface is contacted with a reflective flowable material, thereby forming a reflective layer on the surface. In some embodiments, the surface is a surface of a waveguide, for example a waveguide for a display device, and the flowable material coats surfaces of protrusions on the surface to form reflective diffractive optical elements. Some embodiments include a display device comprising a reflective layer of reflective flowable material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2019
    Assignee: Magic Leap, Inc.
    Inventors: Marlon Edward Menezes, Jeffrey Dean Schmulen, Neal Paul Ricks, Victor Kai Liu, Zongxing Wang, David Carl Jurbergs
  • Patent number: 10365416
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are metasurfaces formed on a substrate from a plurality of posts. The metasurfaces are configured to be optically active at one or more wavelengths and in certain embodiments are configured to form lenses having unexpectedly strong focusing power. In particular, the metasurfaces are formed from “low-contrast” materials, including CMOS-compatible materials such as silicon dioxide or silicon nitride. Accordingly, the disclosed metasurfaces are generally CMOS compatible and therefore embody a new paradigm in metasurface design and manufacturing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2019
    Assignee: University of Washington
    Inventors: Alan Zhan, Shane Colburn, Arka Majumdar
  • Patent number: 10288775
    Abstract: Multiple index optical structures, including doublet and triplet lenses, aspheres, torics, atorics, and other types of freeform multiple-index lenses, may be 3D printed as single components from a variety of optical materials having different indices of refraction. 3D-printed Multiple-index lenses may be printed onto other lenses, optical structures, or light emitting structures, or onto components of an electrical optical system to provide color correction and reduced distortions while reducing system complexity by requiring fewer lenses and reducing production costs by reducing the processing power and memory required to maintain system latency. A related method modifies the radiation pattern of an LED assembly by 3D printing optical material directly onto an LED die or an LED emitter bulb.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2019
    Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Alan Keith, Bobby D. Foote, Steven E. Koenck, Arvid Christopher Berg
  • Patent number: 10220647
    Abstract: An image display device includes image cells arranged two-dimensionally. Each image cell has a hologram layer. The hologram layer includes a diffraction grating in which a one-dimensional grating pattern extending in a first direction is repeated in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. Among the plurality of image cells, two or more image cells that are in a row in the second direction and correlated to one color constitute one image cell group. The image cell group includes a section in which the spatial frequency of the diffraction grating is proportionately small as the distance in the second direction from one end of the image cell group increases such that, while a viewpoint is positioned at a predetermined angle relative to an image display device, the two or more image cells constituting the image cell group display the same color as each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignee: TOPPAN PRINTING CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Masami Inokuchi
  • Patent number: 10197804
    Abstract: A waveguide configured for use with a near-eye display (NED) device can include a light-transmissive substrate configured to propagate light rays through total internal reflection and a diffractive optical element (DOE) on a surface of the substrate that is configured to input and/or output light rays to and/or from the substrate. According to some embodiments the DOE can include a diffraction grating made of first material having a first refractive index and a coating of a second material over the diffraction grating, the second material having a second refractive index that is not equal to the first refractive index.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Petri Antero Stenberg, Jani Kari Tapio Tervo
  • Patent number: 10199607
    Abstract: An organic light-emitting display device including a substrate including a display area and a non-display area; a thin film transistor disposed on the substrate in the non-display area; an electroluminescent device disposed in the display area; and an overcoat layer disposed on the substrate and including two or more concave portions and two or more convex portions in the display area. Further, the two or more concave portions and the two or more convex portions form a linear pattern in a plan view. In addition, the electroluminescent device includes a first electrode disposed on the overcoat layer and connecting the electroluminescent device to the thin film transistor; an organic light-emitting layer disposed on the first electrode and configured to emit light; and a second electrode disposed on the organic light-emitting layer. Also, the linear pattern of the two or more concave portions and the two or more convex portions comprise one of a zigzag pattern, a streamlined pattern, and combinations thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: LG DISPLAY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Sookang Kim, KangJu Lee, Wonhoe Koo, Hyunsoo Lim, Mingeun Choi
  • Patent number: 10180769
    Abstract: A method of in-eye icon projection using an electronic device includes emitting light with a light source in response to detecting an image condition. The light is then projected onto a diffraction grating, and the diffraction grating, when illuminated with the light, produces image light of a fixed icon. An image of the fixed icon is formed in an eye of a user, and the image of the fixed icon occupies only part of the user's field of view. The image light has a limited divergence such that the image of the fixed icon is only viewable in a single user's field of view.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2019
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Alex Olwal, Bernard C. Kress, Greg E. Priest-Dorman
  • Patent number: 10168454
    Abstract: A head-mounted display device is provided, the head-mounted display device including: a display element; a light guide prism that includes an incident surface through which image light from the display element enters and that guides the image light to user's eyes; and a housing that contains the display element and the light guide prism; and support unit that fixes the housing to user's head. The light guide prism is partially covered by and contained in the housing. A portion of side surface of the light guide prism covered by the housing is formed with a first groove, and portion of side surface of the light guide prism exposed outside the housing is formed with a second groove. Depth of the first groove measured from the side surface is greater than that of the second groove.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2019
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ryohei Sugihara, Shinya Takahashi, Yoichi Iba
  • Patent number: 10139606
    Abstract: A zoom lens includes, in order from an enlargement conjugate side to a reduction conjugate side, a first lens unit (B1) having a negative refractive power, a second lens unit (B2) having a positive refractive power, a third lens unit (B3) having a positive refractive power, a stop (sto), a fourth lens unit (B4) having a positive refractive power, a fifth lens unit (B5) having a negative refractive power, a sixth lens unit (B6) having a negative refractive power, and a seventh lens unit (B7) having a positive refractive power, and when zooming from a wide-angle end to a telephoto end, the second lens unit (B2), the third lens unit (B3), the fourth lens unit (B4), the fifth lens unit (B5), and the sixth lens unit (B6) move from the reduction conjugate side to the enlargement conjugate side while a space between adjacent lens units changes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2018
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Junya Ichimura
  • Patent number: 10029506
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an optically variable surface pattern having a substrate that comprises a first and a second surface region, the two surface regions being developed in such a way that the first surface region presents, in a first viewing angle range (?1) a bulged-appearing first depiction, and the second surface region presents, in a second viewing angle range (?2) that is different from the first viewing angle range (?1), a bulged-appearing second depiction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2018
    Assignee: GIESECKE+DEVRIENT CURRENCY TECHNOLOGY GMBH
    Inventor: Christian Fuhse
  • Patent number: 10018836
    Abstract: The invention relates to a geodetic instrument, in particular a geodetic telescope, for example for a theodolite, or geodetic overview, photogrammetry or axial camera, comprising an imaging optical system which defines an optical axis and comprises an observation beam path for imaging a target object by an eyepiece and/or on a camera sensor, for registering and/or providing an image of the sighted target object. According to the invention, the imaging optical system comprises at least two diffractive optical elements in the observation beam path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: LEICA GEOSYSTEMS AG
    Inventors: Peter Kipfer, Josef Lais
  • Patent number: 10018523
    Abstract: A sensor system includes a femtosecond infrared (fs-IR) laser to generate a laser beam; a reflecting mirror optically receiving the laser beam; a lens optically coupled to the reflecting mirror to focus the laser beam; a phase mask receiving the laser beam from the lens to generate an index modulated pattern; and a few-mode fiber (FMF) receiving the index modulated pattern.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventors: Ting Wang, Yi Weng
  • Patent number: 10018485
    Abstract: A scale for an optically scanning position-measuring device includes a carrier and a reflective layer disposed on the carrier. A transparent spacer layer is disposed on the reflective layer. The spacer layer has a patterned, partially transparent layer thereon which defines a bright/dark pattern in which regions having the partially transparent layer appear dark and regions without the partially transparent layer appear bright. A sealing layer is disposed on the patterned, partially transparent layer. Products of refractive index and layer thickness are the same for the spacer layer and the sealing layer, or differ by an odd multiple.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: DR. JOHANNES HEIDENHAIN GmbH
    Inventors: Stefan Funk, Peter Speckbacher
  • Patent number: 9977181
    Abstract: Provided is an optical device whose resin member is less likely to reach a high temperature, as compared with that of a conventional optical device. The optical device (1) includes (i) an optical fiber (11) in which a jacket-removed section (I1) is provided and (ii) a resin member (12) in which the jacket-removed section (I1) is embedded. The jacket-removed section (I1) is a section in which a part of a jacket (112) covering an outer surface of a cladding (111b) is removed so that only a part of the outer surface of the cladding (111b) is exposed in a cross section of the optical fiber (11).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2018
    Assignee: FUJIKURA LTD.
    Inventor: Shinya Ikoma
  • Patent number: 9945666
    Abstract: A narrowband transmission system includes a dielectric grating that defines a surface and includes a plurality of longitudinal members arranged along an axis. The longitudinal members are surrounded by a medium. The longitudinal members are made of a material that has an index of refraction that is greater than an index of refraction of the medium. The dielectric grating is configured to receive radiation at the surface. The system further includes a means for breaking a symmetry between the radiation and the dielectric grating such that the dielectric grating transmits a given wavelength band of the radiation through the dielectric grating while rejecting remainder of wavelengths embodied in the radiation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2018
    Assignee: The Regents of The University of Michigan
    Inventors: Justin Foley, Jamie D. Phillips, Steve Young
  • Patent number: 9904058
    Abstract: In a stacked waveguide assembly, the waveguides can comprise color filters, distributed filters, and/or switch materials. Examples of color filters include dyes, tints, or stains. Examples of distributed filters and/or switch materials include dichroic filters, Bragg gratings, electronically switchable glass, and electronically switchable mirrors. Switch materials can be designed or tuned to attenuate light of unwanted colors or wavelengths. The waveguides may each be associated with a particular design wavelength. This can mean that a waveguide that is associated with a design wavelength includes an incoupling optical element is configured to deflect light at the design wavelength to an associated light distributing element and that the associated wavelength selective region is configured to attenuate light not at the design wavelength.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2018
    Assignee: Magic Leap, Inc.
    Inventors: Ivan L. Yeoh, Lionel E. Edwin, John Graham Macnamara