Patent · US Expired

Optical sensor device using a dielectric transparent spherical-shell section

US5103088A · kind A · utility

5Cited by

5References

26Claims

0Family size

Assignee

Messerschmitt Bolkow Blohm GmbH · DE

Inventors

Thorsteinn Halldorsson · Munich, DE
Konrad Altmann · Munich, DE
Ernst-August Seiffarth · Taufkirchen, DE

Key dates

Filing date	Jul 5, 1990
Grant date	Apr 7, 1992
Priority date	—
Expiry date	Jul 5, 2010

Classification

Technology area (CPC G)Physics
CPC primaryG01S3/781
WIPO fieldMeasurement
WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An optical sensor device for recognizing optical irradiation and detecting its direction is constructed as a spherical-shell section from dielectric, optically transparent material. The irradiation penetrating into the spherical-shell section is reflected back and forth between the exterior and the interior surface or between a mirror and a thin shell via an air gap or vacuum gap, and is thus deflected to the shell edge. Since signals of different intensities are received at the irradiation detector at the beam edge according to the direction of incidence, the direction of incidence of the irradiation can be determined from the relationship of the signals.

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