Patent · US Expired

Integrated optic device for laser beam scanning

US4902088A · kind A · utility

18Cited by
24References
22Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 18, 1988
Grant dateFeb 20, 1990
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 18, 2008

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG02F1/2955
  • WIPO fieldOptics
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An integrated device (10) for scanning a laser beam, including a substrate (12). An electro-optic waveguide (14), a Bragg grating electrode array (31) in operative contact with the waveguide, and a array of electro-optic prisms (33). The electrode array (31) includes a plurality of upper grating electrodes (26) and a lower first electrode (32). A voltage potential can be placed across individual upper grating electrodes (26) and the lower electrode (32) to establish up a Bragg grating in a small localized region. This localized Bragg grating diffracts a laser beam carried by the waveguide and creates a spatially-variable diffracted beam (40) which can be continuously scanned by deflecting the diffracted beam (40) with the electro-optic prism array (33). The integrated device can also perform two dimensional scanning by including an array of small period diffraction gratings (61), to diffract the laser beam (24) out of the plane of the waveguide film (14), or an array of hologram facets (51) to map a set of points defined by the hologram facets (51) into a two-dimensional matrix of points.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.