US 2008/0165437 A1Published application

Non-imaging facet based optics

AssigneeXtreme Energetics, Inc.

InventorLeo David DiDomenico

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A high efficiency and compact optical device comprising two or more active and resonating optical facet surfaces defined by a three-dimensional representation and configured to provide a three-dimensional device. A focal region, remote from the optical surfaces and non-contiguous therewith, is defined by two or more active optical resonant surfaces, at least one of which is self-resonant. The optical surfaces in general do not have a continuous second derivative and are defined by a piecewise continuous surface function providing radially directed facets. The optical device comprises a transparent dielectric body with its optical surfaces being formed on the surfaces of said transparent dielectric body. A light transducer may be located at a focal region to provide an energy conversion. A light source having a physical extension in space, such as an LED, may be located at the focal region to provide collimation. In some embodiments the active surfaces may be chosen to transform incident radiation into a predetermined shape and having a predetermined spatial power distribution.

Claims47

Dependent claims

A method for manufacturing a transparent dielectric medium optical device having a plurality of active surfaces, at least one of which is a 3-dimensional optical self-resonant surface that transforms a first distribution of light, received at an input aperture, into a second distribution of light, located at an output aperture, comprising:

a. providing light as a mathematical model to an input aperture having an edge-ray bundle given by a first 4-dimensional phase-space representation and light at an output aperture having an edge-ray bundle given by a last 4-dimensional phase-space representation, wherein the area of the first 4-dimensional hyper-space region, as defined by the locus of edge-rays around said input aperture phase-space, is conserved and substantially equal to the area of the last 4-dimensional hyper-space region, as defined by the locus of edge-rays around said output aperture phase-space,
b. warping said optical self-resonant surface mathematically to ensure that said area of said 4-dimensional hyper-space regions is substantially maintained as a constant of the propagation while also ensuring the existence of discontinuous second derivatives by facets on at least one of said optical self-resonant surfaces thereby providing a 3-dimensional optical device,
c. defining a focal region that is noncontiguous with said optical resonant surfaces and remotely located from said optical self-resonant surfaces.
whereby said active optical surfaces and said self-resonant surfaces redirect light from said input aperture to said output aperture by a series of transforming redirections produced by a specific warping of said plurality of active surfaces, at least one of which is a self-resonant facet surface of said 3-dimensional optical device.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/008,053Filed 8 Jan 2008
Priority: 10 Jan 2007
Published: 10 Jul 2008
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification12 codes

G02B 5/045
Prisms: prism arrays
F24S 23/10
Arrangements for concentrating solar-rays for solar heat collectors: prisms
F24S 23/31
With lenses: having discontinuous faces, e.g. Fresnel lenses
G02B 19/0028
Characterised by the optical means employed: refractive and reflective surfaces, e.g. non-imaging catadioptric systems