Boliven Patents - US7633670: Methods, systems, and devices for steering optical beams

Join
today

Boliven PRO is more than just patent search

Build and save lists using the powerful Lists feature
Analyze and download your search results
Share patent search results with your clients

New to Patents? Find out more from CambridgeIP ®

US7633670: Methods, systems, and devices for steering optical beams

Filing Information

Inventor(s)	Betty Lise Anderson · Victor Argueta-Diaz · Carolyn Warnky ·
Assignee(s)	The Ohio State University · View assignee updates
Attorney/Agent(s)	Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP ·
Primary Examiner	Scott J Sugarman ·
Assistant Examiner	Tuyen Q Tra ·
Application Number	US11184536
Filing date	07/18/2005
Issue date	12/15/2009
Prior Publication Data	US20060061893 - 03/23/2006
Predicted expiration date	08/10/2026
Patent term adjustment	388
U.S. Classifications	359/290 · 359/237 ·
International Classifications	G02B2600 ·
Kind Code	B2
Related U.S. Application Data	CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/588,731 filed Jul. 16, 2004, which is incorporated by reference herein.

Abstract

Devices and methods are provided for steering optical beams. The devices use arrays and at least one optical element to steer an input beam to a desired location. Additionally, devices and methods are provided for changing the array dimensions of arrays of input beam positions. The devices use arrays and a plurality of optical elements to rearrange an input array.

Independent Claims | See all claims (29)

1. A device for steering an optical beam, comprising: an array of array elements; at least one trap door in the array of array elements; and at least one optical element, wherein at least one of the array elements in the array comprises an input array element that is arranged such that an input beam incident on the at least one input array element travels a light path from the input array element to the at least one optical element, and wherein the array of array elements and the at least one optical element are arranged such that the input beam subsequently travels between the array of array elements and the at least one optical element until the input beam is incident on the at least one trap door in the array of array elements.
11. A device for steering an optical beam, comprising: an array of array elements; at least one optical element; at least one trap door in the array of array elements arranged such that an input beam entering the array through the trap door is incident on the at least one optical element, wherein the input beam incident on the at least one optical element travels between the at least one optical element and the array of array elements until the input beam is incident on an output array element in the array of array elements.
17. A spot inter-leaver device comprising: an inter-leaver array having inter-leaver array elements; and a plurality of inter-leaver optical elements, wherein the inter-leaver array and the plurality of inter-leaver optical elements are arranged such that a first array of input beam positions having first dimensions is rearranged to a second array of input beam positions having second dimensions.
22. A method for steering an optical beam, comprising: inputting an input light beam from at least one direction; and reflecting the input light beam between an array of array elements and a plurality of optical elements, wherein the array includes at least one trap door that outputs the input light beam and at least one array element is arranged such that the input is directed to a particular array element in the array, and wherein the step of reflecting comprises reflecting the input light beam between the array and the plurality of optical elements such that the input light beam reflects off of more than one of the array elements in the array.
26. A method for steering an optical beam, comprising: inputting an input light beam from at least one direction; and reflecting the input light beam between an array of array elements and a plurality of optical elements, wherein the array includes at least one trap door and at least one array element is arranged such that the input is directed to a particular array element in the array, and wherein the step of reflecting comprises reflecting the input light beam between the array and the plurality of optical elements such that the input light beam reflects off of more than one of the array elements in the array, wherein the step of reflecting the input light beam comprises reflecting the input light beam between an array of array elements and first and second optical elements, wherein the array of array elements comprises a row of array elements, and wherein the desired array element in the row of array elements comprises a first trap door.
27. A method for steering an optical beam, comprising: inputting an input light beam from at least one direction; and reflecting the input light beam between an array of array elements and a plurality of optical elements, wherein the array includes at least one trap door and at least one array element is arranged such that the input is directed to a particular array element in the array, and wherein the step of reflecting comprises reflecting the input light beam between the array and the plurality of optical elements such that the input light beam reflects off of more than one of the array elements in the array, wherein the step of reflecting the input light beam comprises reflecting the input light beam between an array of array elements and first and second optical elements, wherein the array of array elements comprises at least one column of array elements and at least one row of array elements, and wherein the desired array element in the array elements comprises a first trap door through which the input light beam passes.
29. A method for steering an optical beam, comprising: inputting an input light beam from at least one direction; and reflecting the input light beam between an array of array elements and a plurality of optical elements, wherein the array includes at least one trap door and at least one array element is arranged such that the input is directed to a particular array element in the array, and wherein the step of reflecting comprises reflecting the input light beam between the array and the plurality of optical elements such that the input light beam reflects off of more than one of the array elements in the array, wherein the step of reflecting the input light beam comprises reflecting the input light beam between an array of array elements and a first and second optical elements, wherein the array of array elements comprises a row of array elements and a column of array elements, and wherein at least one array element in the array comprises a switching array element, and further comprising reflecting the input light beam between the array of array elements and third and fourth optical elements such that the input beam is directed to the desired array element.

References Cited

U.S. Patent Documents

Document Number	Assignees	Inventors	Issue/Pub Date
US3428391	HARRY S NEWCOMER	Newcomer	Feb 1969
US3463571	IBM	Boehm et al.	Aug 1969
US3755676	BELL TELEPHONE LABOR INC	Kinsel	Aug 1973
US3892468	BELL TELEPHONE LABOR INC	Duguay	Jul 1975
US4225938	The United States of America as represented by the Director of the National Security Agency	Turpin	Sep 1980
US4344671	Raymus K. Payton	Lang	Aug 1982
US4474434	GTE Laboratories Incorporated	Carlsen et al.	Oct 1984
US4474435	GTE Laboratories Incorporated	Carlsen et al.	Oct 1984
US4546249	The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy	Whitehouse et al.	Oct 1985
US4929956	Hughes Aircraft Company	Lee et al.	May 1990
US5018816	AMP Incorporated	Murray et al.	May 1991
US5018835	Raytheon Company	Dorschner	May 1991
US5117239	General Electric Company	Riza	May 1992
US5231405	General Electric Company	Riza	Jul 1993
US5274385	General Electric Company	Riza	Dec 1993
US5276758	HUGHES JOHN L	Hughes	Jan 1994
US5319477	General Electric Company	DeJule	Jun 1994
US5329118	RIZA NABEEL A	Riza	Jul 1994
US5418880	Polaroid Corporation	Lewis et al.	May 1995
US5463497	Canon Kabushiki Kaisha	Muraki et al.	Oct 1995
US5465175	Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha	Woodgate et al.	Nov 1995
US5475525	Thomson-CSF	Tournois et al.	Dec 1995
US5512907	General Electric Company	Riza	Apr 1996
US5592333	Polaroid Corporation	Lewis	Jan 1997
US5623360	Essex Corporation	Gesell et al.	Apr 1997
US5724163	Yariv Ben-Yehuda	David	Mar 1998
US5726752	Fuji Electric Co., Ltd.	Uno et al.	Mar 1998
US5767956	Advantest Corp.	Yoshida	Jun 1998
US5852693	Ultratech Stepper, Inc.	Jeong	Dec 1998
US5859967	FaxSav Incorporated	Kaufeld et al.	Jan 1999
US5936759	Bodenseewerk Geratetechnik GmbH	Buttner	Aug 1999
US5973727	New Light Industries, Ltd.	McGrew et al.	Oct 1999
US6014244	Hewlett-Packard Company	Chang	Jan 2000
US6040880	Canon Kabushiki Kaisha	Tsuboi	Mar 2000
US6064506	Deutsche Telekom AG	Koops	May 2000
US6181367	New Light Industries, Ltd.	McGrew et al.	Jan 2001
US6188817	Marconi Communications Limited	Goodfellow	Feb 2001
US6236506	Avanex Corporation	Cao	May 2001
US6266176	The Ohio State University	Anderson et al.	Jul 2001
US6323981	TyCom (US) Inc.	Jensen	Nov 2001
US6388815	The Ohio State University	Collins, Jr. et al.	May 2002
US6429976*	Fujitsu Limited	Yamamoto et al.	Aug 2002
US6480323	Carnegie Mellon University	Messner et al.	Nov 2002
US6522404	Agilent Technologies, Inc.	Mikes et al.	Feb 2003
US6525889	The Ohio State University	Collins, Jr. et al.	Feb 2003
US6535340	Canon Kabushiki Kaisha	Saruwatari	Mar 2003
US6637899	Canon Kabushiki Kaisha	Sunaga et al.	Oct 2003
US6647164	3M Innovative Properties Company	Weaver et al.	Nov 2003
US6674939	The Ohio State University	Anderson et al.	Jan 2004
US6711316	JDS Uniphase Inc.	Ducellier	Mar 2004
US6724535	Microsharp Corporation Limited	Clabburn	Apr 2004
US6724951	The Ohio State University	Anderson et al.	Apr 2004
US6734955		Wight et al.	May 2004
US6760140	The Ohio State University Research Foundation	Argueta-Diaz et al.	Jul 2004
US6816307	SUN BOLIN	Sun	Nov 2004
US6922277*	CiDRA Corporation	Moon et al.	Jul 2005
US6934069	CiDRA Corporation	Moon et al.	Aug 2005
US6952306	The Ohio State University	Anderson	Oct 2005
US6958861	The Ohio State University	Argueta-Diaz	Oct 2005
US7171068*	Texas Instruments Incorporated	Bartlett et al.	Jan 2007
US7215474	The Ohio State University	Argueta-Diaz	May 2007
US7236238	The Ohio State University	Durresi et al.	Jun 2007
US20020030814		Mikes et al.	Mar 2002
US20030202731	HRL LABORATORIES, LLC	Ionov et al.	Oct 2003
US20040190823	LEUTHOLD JUERG	Leuthold et al.	Sep 2004
US20050007668	Boulder Nonlinear Systems, Inc.	Serati et al.	Jan 2005
US20060034567	ANDERSON BETTY L	Anderson et al.	Feb 2006
US20060044987		Anderson et al.	Mar 2006
US20060061893	ANDERSON BETTY L	Anderson et al.	Mar 2006
US20060062517	ANDERSON BETTY L	Anderson et al.	Mar 2006
US20060114568	ARGUETA-DIAZ VICTOR	Argueta-Diaz	Jun 2006

Foreign Patent Documents

Document Number	Assignees	Issue/Pub Date
JP10333089	MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC IND CO LTD	Dec 1998
WO200114924	THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY	Mar 2001
WO200229436	MBDA UK LIMITED	Apr 2002
WO2003075048	THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FOUNDATION	Sep 2003
WO2003083521	THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY	Oct 2003
WO2003083541	THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY	Oct 2003

* cited by examiner

Other Publications

U.S. Appl. No. 11/182,111, Non-final Office Action, mailed Jan. 15, 2008.

U.S. Appl. No. 11/184,535, Final Office Action, mailed Oct. 15, 2007.

Chiou et al., A Mirror Device with Tilt and Piston Motions, Oct. 1999, SPIE, vol. 3893, pp. 298-303.

U.S. Appl. No. 09/645,136, Non-final Office Action, mailed Aug. 15, 2001.

U.S. Appl. No. 09/645,136, Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due and Notice of Allowability with Examiner's Statement of Reasons for Allowance, mailed Feb. 26, 2002.

U.S. Appl. No. 09/688,478, Non-final Office Action, mailed Jan. 20, 2002.

U.S. Appl. No. 09/688,478, Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due and Notice of Allowability with Examiner's Statement of Reasons for Allowance, mailed Jul. 2, 2002.

U.S. Appl. No. 09/688,904, Notice of Allowance and Issue Fee Due and Notice of Allowability with Examiner's Amendment and Examiner's Statement of Reasons for Allowance, mailed Jan. 1, 2001.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/086,355, Non-final Office Action, mailed Feb. 2, 2003.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/086,355, Non-final Office Action, mailed Aug. 13, 2003.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/086,355, Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due and Notice of Allowability with Examiner's Amendment, Examiner's Statement of Reasons for Allowance, and Interview Summary, mailed Feb. 18, 2004.

Int'l App. No. PCT/US03/06189, International Search Report, mailed Oct. 20, 2003.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/106,177, Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due and Notice of Allowability with Examiner's Statement of Reasons for Allowance, mailed Jun. 12, 2003.

Int'l App. No. PCT/US03/09246, International Search Report, mailed Sep. 4, 2003.

Int'l App. No. PCT/US03/09246, International Preliminary Examination Report, completed Dec. 11, 2003.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/106,776, Non-final Office Action, mailed Jun. 10, 2003.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/106,776, Final Office Action, mailed Nov. 21, 2003.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/106,776, Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due and Notice of Allowability, mailed Dec. 11, 2003.

Int'l App. No. PCT/US03/09242, International Search Report, mailed Sep. 23, 2003.

Int'l App. No. PCT/US03/09242, International Preliminary Examination Report, completed Sep. 8, 2004.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/726,770, Non-final Office Action, mailed Aug. 20, 2004.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/726,770, Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due and Notice of Allowability with Examiner's Amendment, Examiner's Statement of Reasons for Allowance, and Interview Summary, mailed May 5, 2005.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/726,771, Non-final Office Action, mailed Jan. 1, 2005.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/726,771, Final Office Action, mailed Oct. 6, 2005.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/726,771, Non-final Office Action, mailed Jan. 30, 2006.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/726,771, Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due and Notice of Allowability with Examiner's Statement of Reasons for Allowance and Interview Summary, mailed Sep. 12, 2006.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/726,771, Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due and Notice of Allowability with Examiner's Statement of Reasons for Allowance, mailed Feb. 28, 2007.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/727,009, Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due and Notice of Allowability with Examiner's Statement of Reasons for Allowance, mailed Dec. 7, 2004.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/727,009, Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due and Notice of Allowability with Examiner's Statement of Reasons for Allowance, mailed May 24, 2005.

U.S. Appl. No. 11/184,535, Non-final Office Action, mailed Oct. 10, 2006.

U.S. Appl. No. 11/184,535, Non-final Office Action, mailed Apr. 3, 2007.

U.S. Appl. No. 11/183,029, Non-final Office Action, mailed Nov. 20, 2006.

U.S. Appl. No. 11/256,578, Non-final Office Action, mailed Mar. 29, 2006.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/256,578, Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due and Notice of Allowability with Examiner's Statement of Reasons for Allowance, mailed Aug. 17, 2006.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/256,578, Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due and Notice of Allowability with Examiner's Statement of Reasons for Allowance, mailed Dec. 6, 2006.

Collins et al., An Experimental Numerical Optical Processor (NOP), Digest of Papers for Compcon 78, IEEE catalog No. 78CH1328-4C, San Francisco, CA, Feb. 28-Mar. 3, 1978, pp. 198-199.

Collins, Jr., The Design of Devices for Producing Optically Controlled Incremental Time Delays for Phased Array Radars, National Reconnaissance Office, Contract No. NRO-98-C-6002, Technical Report 736076-1, The Ohio State University, Oct. 1998, 60 pages.

Collins, Jr. et al., True Time Delay with Binary Time Delay for Large Arrays, 1998 Antenna Applications Symposium, Allerton Park, Monticello, IL, Sep. 1998, 13 pages.

Dolphi et al., Experimental Demonstration of a Phased-Array Antenna Optically Controlled with Phase and Time Delays, Applied Optics, vol. 35, No. 26, Sep. 10, 1006, pp. 5293-5300.

Int'l App. No. PCT/US00/23361, International Search Report, mailed Jan. 8, 2001.

Int'l App. No. PCT/US00/23361, International Preliminary Examination Report, completed May 8, 2001.

EP App. No. 00 96 1366, Supplementary European Search Report, completed Apr. 3, 2003.

Bishop et al., The Rise of Optical Switching, Scientific American, Jan. 2001, pp. 88-94.

Hect, Many Approaches Taken for All-Optical Switching, Laser Focus World, www.optoelectronics-world.com, Aug. 2001, 5 pgs.

Webb et al., Stroke Amplifier for Deformable Mirrors, Applied Optics, vol. 43, No. 28, Oct. 1, 2004, pp. 5330-5333.

Zdeblick, Design Variables Prevent a Single Industry Standard, Laser Focus World, www.optoelectronics-world.com, Mar. 2001, 4 pgs.

U.S. Appl. No. 10/726,771, Durresi et al.

Anderson, et al., Increasing Efficiency of Optical Beam Steerers, Draft Technical Report #3 for Harris Corporation, The Ohio State University, May 30, 2003, pp. 1-11.

Anderson et al., Binary-Counting True Time Delay Generator Using a White Cell Design and Deformable Mirror Devices, LEOS, Orlando, FL, Dec. 1998, 2 pgs.

Anderson et al., Design Advances in Free-Space Optical True-Time Delay Device, PSAA-8, Monterey, CA, Jan. 1998, 3 pgs.

Anderson et al., Highly Parallel Optical Device to Produce True Time Delays for Phased Array Antennas, Allerton, Sep. 1998, 14 pgs.

Anderson et al., Optically Produced True-Time Delays for Phased Antenna Arrays, Applied Optics, vol. 36, No. 32, Nov. 20, 1997, pp. 8493-8503.

Anderson et al., Optical Cross-Connect Based on Tip/Tilt Micromirrors in a White Cell, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, vol. 9, No. 2, Mar./Apr. 2003, pp. 579-593.

Anderson, et al. Optical Interconnection Device Based on the White Cell, presentation at Notre Dame University Nov. 6, 2002, 46 pgs.

Anderson, Optical Interconnections, Optical True-Time Delays, and More . . . , presentation at University of Colorado Jan. 28, 2003, 61 pgs.

Anderson et al., Steering of Optical Beams Using True-Time Delay Based on the White Cell, Optical Society of America, 2005, 4 pgs.

Anderson, et al., Polynomial-based optical true-time delay devices with microelectromechanical mirror arrays, Applied Optics, vol. 41, No. 26, Sep. 10, 2002, pp. 5449-5461.

Argueta-Diaz et al., Binary Optical Interconnection: Patent Disclosure Addendum, Mar. 7, 2005, pp. 1-47.

Argueta-Diaz, et al. Reconfigurable Photonic Switch Based on a Binary System Using the White Cell and Micromirror Arrays, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, vol. 9, No. 2, Mar./Apr. 2003, pp. 594-602.

Chen et al., 1-to-12 Surface Normal Three-Dimensional Optical Interconnects, Applied Physics Letters 63(14), Oct. 4, 1993, pp. 1883-1885.

Cohen et al., Optically Controlled Serially Fed Phased Array Sensor, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, vol. 8, No. 12, Dec. 1996, pp. 1683-1685.

Collins et al., Numerical Optical Data Processing, Proceedings of the 1978 International Optical Computing Conference, London, England, Sep. 1978, pp. 194-197.

Collins et al., Optics for Numerical Calculations, Proceedings of ICO-11 Conference, Madrid, Spain, 1978, pp. 311-314.

Collins, Jr. et al., Optical True Time Delay for Phased Array Antennas Based on the White Cell, GOMAC, Monterey, CA, Mar. 1999, 4 pgs.

Collins, Numerical Optical Data Processor, SPIE, vol. 128, Effective Utilization of Optics in Radar Systems, 1977, pp. 313-319.

Ewing et al., Advancements in LCoS Optical Phased Array Technology, BNS Boulder Nonlinear Systems (undated), pp. 1-23.

Fairley et al., The Microphotonics Revolution, Mit's Magazine of Innovation, Technology Review, Jul./Aug. 2000, pp. 38-44.

Freitag et al., A Coherent Optically Controlled Phased Array Antenna System, IEEE Microwave and Guided Wave Letters, vol. 3, No. 9, Sep. 1993, pp. 293-295.

Goutzoulis et al., Hybrid Electronic Fiber Optic Wavelength-Multiplexed System for True Time-Delay Steering of Phased Array Antennas, Optical Engineering, vol. 31, No. 11, Nov. 1992, pp. 2312-2322.

Higgins et al., Design and demonstration of a switching engine for a binary true-time-delay device that uses a White cell, Applied Optics, vol. 42, No. 23, Aug. 10, 2003, pp. 4747-4757.

Kunathikom, et al. Design of Delay Elements in Binary Optical True-Time Delay Device that uses a White Cell, Applied Optics, vol. 42, No. 35, Dec. 10, 2003, pp. 6984-6994.

Li et al., Angular Limitations of Polymer-Based Waveguide Holograms for 1-to-many V-shaped Surface-Normal Optical Interconnects, Applied Physics Letters 65(9), Aug. 29, 1994, pp. 1070-1072.

Liu et al., Cascaded Energy-Optimized Linear Volume Hologram Array for 1-to-many Surface-Normal Even Fan-Outs, Optics and Laser Technology, vol. 29, No. 6, 1997, pp. 321-325.

Rader, et al., Demonstration of a Linear Optical True-time Delay Device by Use of a Microelectromechanical Mirror Array, Applied Optics, vol. 42, No. 8, Mar. 10, 2003, pp. 1409-1416.

Saleh et al., Fundamentals of Photonics, Wiley, Aug. 1991.

White, Long Optical Paths of Large Aperture, Journal Optical Society America, vol. 32, May 1942, pp. 285-288.

White, Very Long Optical Paths in Air, Journal Optical Society America, vol. 66, No. 5, May 1976, pp. 411-416.

Yen et al., Operation of a Numerical Optical Data Processor, 1980, SPIE vol. 232, International Optical Computing Conference, 1980, pp. 160-167.

U.S. Appl. No. 11/182,111, Final Office Action, mailed Sep. 3, 2008, 16 pages.

U.S. Appl. No. 11/184,535, Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due and Notice of Allowability with Examiner's Statement of Reasons for Allowance, mailed Jan. 31, 2008, 6 pages.

U.S. Appl. No. 11/801,105, Non-final Office Action, mailed Apr. 29, 2008, 9 pages.

Amendment from U.S. Appl. No. 11/182,111 dated Mar. 3, 2009.

Office action from U.S. Appl. No. 11/801,105 dated Nov. 3, 2008.

Response to Office action from U.S. Appl. No. 11/801,105 dated Jul. 16, 2008.