Photonics & Imaging

Photonics/​Optics

Explore the latest technical briefs and product breakthroughs in photonics and optics. Resources include breakthroughs in lasers, laser systems, fiber optics, optical components, and photonics.

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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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
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...
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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...
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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: Test & Measurement
Sponsored by a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract, MetroLaser, Inc., has developed a novel, compact and low-cost laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) under the...
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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...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Single crystals of benzil, benzil aniline, and salicylidene-aniline have been successfully grown using a modified...
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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...
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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...
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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
Rapid technological progress, especially in computers, CCD technology, color printers and scanners makes forgery and counterfeit of identification documents such as credit cards, or...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Coherent gradient sensing (CGS) is a diffraction-based, noncontact optical technique for measuring the slight curvature of a nearly flat thin film or specimen surface. CGS is especially useful...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Voltage-tunable optical band-pass filters based on surface plasmon waves have been proposed. These filters would function at both visible and infrared wavelengths. Whereas...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A process for the growth of single-crystal (epitaxial) multilayer films has been developed at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division. This process is predicated on the preparation of a...
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
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....
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
The Boeing Company has developed fiber-laser-amplifier technology representing the latest in diode-laser-pumped systems, providing high output power, high brightness, tunability, frequency-doubled...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Semimonolithic resonant structures external to lasers have been proposed for use in optical frequency-conversion applications - for example, doubling the frequencies of laser beams....
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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...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Devices containing planar arrays of micromachined, electrostatically adjustable Fabry-Perot interferometers are undergoing development. These devices could be designed, for example,...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
As currently practiced, packaging of individual optoelectronic components accounts for 40-50 percent of product cost. The development of higher-volume, lower-cost optoelectronic...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
The Boeing Company has developed and patented certain enhancements to commercially available Bragg grating sensors and demodulation systems. These patents (Nos....
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
The figure schematically shows a micromachined Fabry-Perot interferometer that, when fully developed, would be part of a two-dimensional array of such interferometers in a...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
External-cavity diode lasers (ECDLs) have been commercially available for several years. Since their introduction, they have found applications ranging from telecommunications to atomic...
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