Stories
35
63
61
0
2940
30
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A special-purpose multispectral video camera has been designed to provide an enhanced capability for viewing hydrogen fires. Hydrogen fires do not emit sufficient visible light to be seen...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
There are a number of important OEM photonic applications based on the detection of low incident light levels, including flow cytometry, PET (positron emission tomography) imaging,...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Corrugated quantum-well infrared photodetector (C-QWIPs) arrays are sensitive and high-resolution thermal imaging devices. They are not only suitable for a wide range of conventional...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Electron-beam (e-beam) lithography has shown promise as a technique for fabricating diffractive optical elements on nonflat substrates. Such optical elements could include convex or concave...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Small ball (full sphere) lenses in the 0.5-mm to 3.0-mm diameter range offer a number of practical advantages for fiber-to-fiber coupling and fiber collimation. Ball lenses are...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Scientists, astronomers, optical re-searchers, and manufacturers frequently require two-axis reflective optical mechanisms to meet the requirements of robust beamsteering...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Inflatable Fresnel lenses are being developed for use as optical concentrators in solar power systems. These lenses are of two types: dome (point-focus) lenses and cylindrical...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Low-Distortion Imaging Spectrometers
"Pushbroom" imaging spectrometers of a proposed type would exhibit little or no distortion in either the spectral or spatial direction. These spectrometers would feature modified Offner optics, which afford a desirable combination of compactness and a high degree of optical correction. Although Offner optics...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Optical Diagnostics of High-Pressure Liquid Fuel Sprays
A report describes experiments in which nonintrusive optical diagnostic techniques were applied to high-pressure fuel sprays in simulated advanced turbine-engine combustor environments. The experiments involved three different fuel injectors in two unique optically accessible combustors: a...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Lateral-transfer optical retroreflectors can now be made extremely stable to both external and internal fluctuations and gradients of temperature. As explained in more detail in the fourth...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Wide-angle, open-faced retroreflectors of a proposed type would be constructed by use of traditional corner-cube reflectors as building blocks. Wide-angle retroreflectors are needed...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A method for making a flow visible in a plane and determining in-plane velocities involves the digitization and digital processing of a sequence of monochrome video images of...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
The Boeing Company has developed an overhead camera system that can automatically spot small pieces of debris on a work surface that might otherwise go unnoticed. The system automatically analyzes inputs...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
The Boeing Company has developed wavelet-based image compression software that offers state-of-the-art compression of still imagery, providing superior image quality at compression ratios ranging from...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
In a filing before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Boeing Company has disclosed a post-processing method for dielectric combiner elements that may reduce the cost of grading dual combiner sets by 90...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Fiber-optic transceivers (FOTs) that can handle digital signals at any bit rate from 10 to 300 MHz have been developed. These variable-rate FOTs offer considerable advantages over fixed-rate FOTs that...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
An optical technique for measuring the concentration of soot in air is based on the cavity-ring-down (CRD) principle, which is so named because it involves observation of the decay...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Trenches Would Reduce Cross-Talk Among Microlensed QWIPs
Cross-talk in integrated-circuit focal-plane arrays of quantum-well photodetectors (QWIPs) equipped with microlenses would be reduced, according to a proposal, by etching deep trenches into the substrates of these devices. The proposal applies, more specifically, to GaAs-based,...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Selective Metallization for High-Temperature Semiconductors
Inventors at the Cornell Research Foundation have devised a method of selective metallization of high-temperature semiconductors to produce ohmic or rectifying contacts. The process consists of three phases: a lithographic step to define the areas of contact, preparation of the...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
The performances of large focal-plane arrays of quantum-well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) would be improved, according to a proposal, by incorporating microlenses. In comparison with a similar QWIP...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Computer Code for Analysis of Stress in Silicon Wafers
The MacWafer™ code computes gravitational and thermal stresses in silicon wafers and uses these results to determine the maximum allowable temperature variation across a wafer, maximum processing temperatures, and maximum allowable heating and cooling rates. This information is of particular...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A proposed miniature, electrically tunable, band-pass optical filter would have a Fabry-Perot configuration, but would be designed to trade the high spectral resolution (narrow-band pass) and...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
An important nondestructive evaluation (NDE) measurement technique is to record the vibration-mode spectrum of a material part or structure, excited by a random or a...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Fabrication of Diffractive GaAs Microlenses
A planar array of microscopic diffractive optical elements that resemble macroscopic Fresnel lenses can be fabricated as an array of continuous relief patterns on a GaAs substrate by a procedure that includes the transfer of a corresponding array of patterns formed on a surface layer of poly(methyl...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Single crystals of benzil, benzil aniline, and salicylidene-aniline have been successfully grown using a modified...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
The delta-doped hybrid advanced detector is a developmental integrated electronic imaging and detecting circuit designed to be sensitive to (1) charged particles with kinetic energies ranging from hundreds...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A vapor drying treatment removes traces of water and other contaminant residues that remain on the surface of a patterned semiconductor substrate after chemical cleaning in preparation...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A simple technique for extending the dynamic range of a charge-coupled-device (CCD) video camera involves the use of photochromic material — the same material used in...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
The methods described are used with existing fiber optic technologies, and are based on several patents and on disclosures now before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The patents are No....
Top Stories
Blog: Manufacturing & Prototyping
2025 Holiday Gift Guide for Engineers: Tech, Tools, and Gadgets
INSIDER: Research Lab
Scientists Create Superconducting Semiconductor Material
Blog: Software
Quiz: Materials
Blog: Aerospace
Tech Briefs Wrapped 2025: Top 10 Technology Stories
Blog: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Webcasts
Upcoming Webinars: AR/AI
The Real Impact of AR and AI in the Industrial Equipment Industry
Upcoming Webinars: Motion Control
Next-Generation Linear and Rotary Stages: When Ultra Precision...
Upcoming Webinars: Energy
Hydrogen Engines Are Heating Up for Heavy Duty
Podcasts: Medical
How Wearables Are Enhancing Smart Drug Delivery
Podcasts: Power
SAE Automotive Podcast: Solid-State Batteries

