Vision enhancement illuminators
AssigneeSensors Unlimited, Inc.
InventorMarc Hansen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An illuminator comprising a short-wave infrared (SWIR) laser, a fiber optic, and a lens optic. The fiber optic is coupled to the SWIR laser for mixing the modes of a beam emitted by the SWIR laser. The lens optic is coupled to the fiber optic for shaping the beam into a top-hat beam profile. A method for creating SWIR illumination includes emitting a laser beam with multiple modes from a SWIR laser, transmitting the laser beam through a multi-mode fiber optic, and transmitting the laser beam through a lens optic. Transmitting the laser beam through the multi-mode fiber optic can including mixing modes of the laser beam thereby reducing speckle and constructive and destructive interference in the laser beam. Transmitting the laser beam through the lens optic can include generating a top-hat beam profile.
Claims14
An illuminator comprising:
- a short-wave infrared (SWIR) laser configured to emit a beam with a bandwidth of greater than 10 nm at full-width half maximum;
- a pulse width modulator operatively connected to the SWIR laser;
- a fiber optic coupled to the SWIR laser for mixing modes of a beam emitted by the SWIR laser;
- and
- a lens optic coupled to the fiber optic for shaping the beam into a top-hat beam profile.
A method for creating SWIR illumination comprising:
- emitting a laser beam with multiple modes from a SWIR laser configured to emit a beam with a bandwidth of greater than 10 nm at full-width half maximum;
- modulating the SWIR laser with a pulse width modulator to vary the modes emitted from the SWIR laser and to break up the laser beam;
- transmitting the laser beam through a multi-mode fiber optic to mix modes of the laser beam thereby reducing speckle and constructive and destructive interference in the laser beam;
- and
- transmitting the laser beam through a lens optic to generate a top-hat beam profile.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.