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US 12,739,491 B2Granted
Scanning camera system
AssigneeVega Wave Systems, Inc.
InventorsAlan Sugg, Anthony Moretti
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Articles of manufacture, machines, processes for using the articles and machines, processes for making the articles and machines, and products produced by the process of making, along with necessary intermediates, directed to a scanning camera system.
Claims19
An apparatus comprising:
- a camera head containing a scanning mirror system that includes a radiation-insensitive mirror and devoid of any active light source and devoid of any active light detector wherein the scanning mirror system comprises a two-axis microelectromechanical systems tip/tilt mirror configured to raster-scan a scene in two dimensions;
- wherein the camera head comprises a hermetically sealed housing having an optical window and being configured for deployment in a nuclear facility and/or a radiation hot-cell;
- control electronics, distal to the camera head and located outside a high-radiation environment in which the camera head is configured to be located;
- a radiation tolerant optical fiber located intermediate the camera head and the control electronics so as to convey light to a scene to be scanned;
- at least one radiation-tolerant optical fiber located intermediate the camera head and the control electronics so as to convey backscattered light from the scene to the control electronics;
- and
- wherein the control electronics comprises an active light source located to provide light to the radiation tolerant fiber, an active detector located to receive the backscattered light, a control that controls the radiation-insensitive mirror, and electronics and software, arranged such that the control, the active light source, the active detector, and the electronics and software cooperate to produce an image of the scene, wherein the camera head remains operable after receiving at least 13 kGy total ionizing dose.
4 more elements
A process including:
- locating a camera head in a high radiation environment, wherein the camera head is hermetically sealed for nuclear facility and/or hot-cell deployment,
- distal from control electronics,
- with a radiation-tolerant optical fiber, located intermediate the camera head and the control electronics, so as to convey light to a scene to be scanned and
- with at least one radiation-tolerant optical fiber located intermediate the camera head and the control electronics so as to convey backscattered light from the camera head to the control electronics,
- with the camera head containing a scanning mirror system that comprises a two-axis MEMS tip/tilt raster-scanning mirror radiation-insensitive mirror and is devoid of any active light source and is devoid of any active light detector, and
- with the control electronics comprising an active light source located to provide light to the radiation-tolerant optical fiber, an active detector located to receive the backscattered light from said at least one radiation-tolerant optical fiber, a control that controls the radiation-insensitive mirror, and electronics and software, wherein the active light source and the active detector are located outside the high radiation environment;
- scanning, with the radiation-insensitive mirror and while the camera head is in the high radiation environment, a scene to produce the backscattered light;
- and
- processing the backscattered light, with the active detector, and the electronics and software, to produce a video signal, or an image signal, that is an image of the scene, and wherein the camera head remains operable after receiving at least 13 kGy total ionizing dose.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.