Apparatus and method for intensifying illumination brightness by time-superposing multiple pulsed light sources
US6193393A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 10, 1998 |
| Grant date | Feb 27, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 10, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG02B27/141
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
An illumination apparatus including: at least two light sources, in which each of the light sources produce independent light beams; a controller for sequentially driving each of the light sources at a high power above their respective maximum rated power, to produce a respective light beam for each light source, and for leaving the remaining light sources at a low power below their respective maximum rated power, such that the time-average of the high and low power levels are set to a predetermined value for each of the light sources; and a combiner and director for sequentially combining each of the light beams from their respective light sources while being driven at high power into a common output beam with a fixed direction. Various combiner and directors are disclosed including tiltable mirrors under the control of the controller as well as optical systems.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.