US 10,473,943 B1Granted

Forming beamformer having stacked monolithic beamsplitters

AssigneeColdQuanta, Inc.

InventorSteven Michael Hughes

Life of this patent

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Abstract

Beamformers are formed (e.g., carved) from a stack of transparent sheets. A rear face of each sheet has a reflective coating. The reflectivities of the coatings vary monotonically with sheet position within the stack. The sheets are tilted relative to the intended direction of an input beam and then bonded to form the stack. The carving can include dicing the stack to yield stacklets, and polishing the stacklets to form beamformers. Each beamformer is thus a stack of beamsplitters, including a front beamsplitter in the form of a triangular or trapezoidal prism, and one or more beamsplitters in the form of rhomboid prisms. In use, a beamformer forms an output beam from an input beam. More specifically, the beamformer splits an input beam into plural output beam components that collectively constitute an output beam that differs in cross section from the input beam.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A beamformer assembly for forming beams of light, the beamformer assembly comprising plural beamformers, the plural beamformers including first and second beamformers, the second beamformer being optically coupled to the first beamformer so that a first beamformer, each of the first and second beamformers including:

a stack of prisms, each of the prisms being monolithic and having orthogonal faces and at least one oblique face oblique to the orthogonal faces, each prism being adjacent to at least one other prism in the stack;
and
reflective layers, each reflective layer being disposed between oblique faces of adjacent prisms, each pair of adjacent prisms having a respective reflective layer disposed therebetween, the reflective layers having different reflectivities,
the reflective layers of the first beamformer being characterized by a first beamsplitting angle, the reflective layers of the second beamformer being characterized by a second beamsplitting angle different from the first beamsplitting angle;
the first beamformer outputting a second portion of the light input to the first beamformer in a first direction that is, at least in part, a function of the first beamsplitting angle, the second beamformer outputting light received from the first beamformer in a second direction that is different from the first direction and, at least in part, is based on the second beamsplitting angle.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/806,509Filed 8 Nov 2017 · us provisional application
Priority: 9 Nov 2016
Granted: 12 Nov 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification13 codes

G02B 27/0977
Using specific optical elements: reflective elements
G02B 1/11
Optical coatings produced by application to, or surface treatment of, optical elements: anti-reflection coatings
G02B 7/021
For lenses: for more than one lens
G02B 23/02
Telescopes, e.g. binoculars; Periscopes; Instruments for viewing the inside of hollow bodies; Viewfinders; Optical aiming or sighting devices:…