Miniature spectrometer
AssigneeLightMachinery Inc.
InventorsAlexander Beaton, John Hunter, Ian J. Miller
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A monolithic, fully-immersed spectrometer using crossed cylindrical lenses enables independent focusing of the incoming beam along the two principal axes, e.g. x-axis and y-axis, perpendicular to the optical axis. A first lens “flattens” the beam before entering the body of a second curved, reflective lens, so the second lens only needs to focus in one axis. This restricts the curvature to 1-dimension and therefore reduces the thickness of the device by an order of magnitude compared to a design based on spherical lenses. A cylindrical-based design greatly increases manufacturability and scalability.
Claims20
A spectrometer comprising:
- an input port for launching a beam of light;
- a first cylindrical lens for collimating the beam of light in only a first direction;
- a monolithic second cylindrical lens, including a curved reflective surface, for collimating the beam of light in a second direction, perpendicular to the first direction, and reflecting the beam of light;
- a diffractive element for angularly dispersing the beam of light into a plurality of optical wavelength ranges and directing the plurality of optical wavelength ranges back to the curved reflective surface, which focuses the plurality of optical wavelength ranges in the second direction;
- a third cylindrical lens configured for focusing the plurality of optical wavelength ranges in the first direction, providing a plurality of spots;
- and
- a detector array for receiving the plurality of spots.
A spectrometer comprising:
- an input port for launching a beam of light;
- a first cylindrical lens for collimating the beam of light in only a first direction;
- a monolithic second cylindrical lens, including a curved reflective surface, for collimating the beam of light in a second direction, perpendicular to the first direction, and reflecting the beam of light;
- a diffractive element for angularly dispersing the beam of light into a plurality of optical wavelength ranges, and directing the plurality of optical wavelength ranges back to the curved reflective surface, which focuses the plurality of optical wavelength ranges in the second direction;
- a third cylindrical lens configured for focusing the plurality of optical wavelength ranges in the first direction, providing a plurality of spots;
- and
- a movable optical fiber reciprocatable across a focal plane of the third cylindrical lens to collect one of the plurality of spots.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.