Device for optically multiplexing a laser beam

US7762465B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• METROLOGIC INSTRUMENTS, INC. · US

Inventors

• C. Harry Knowles · Moorestown, US
• Xiaoxun Zhu · Marlton, US
• Timothy Good · Blackwood, US
• Tao Xian · Readington, US
• Anatoly Kotlarsky · Holland, US
• Michael Veksland · Marlton, US
• Mark Hernandez · Bridgeton, US
• John Gardner · Mullica Hill, US
• Steven Essinger · Philadelphia, US
• Patrick Giordano · Glassboro, US
• Sean Philip Kearney · Marlton, US
• Mark Schmidt · Williamstown, US
• John A. Furlong · Woodbury, US
• Nicholas Ciarlante · Teaneck, US
• Yong Liu · Sunnyvale, US
• Jie Ren · Lo Wu, CN
• Xi Tao · Suzhou, CN
• JiBin Liu · Beijing, CN
• Ming Zhuo · Suzhou, CN
• Duane Ellis · Medford, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 30, 2007
• Grant date: Jul 27, 2010
• Expiry date: Jul 9, 2028

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06K2207/1012
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A device for optically multiplexing a laser beam, having a glass plate construction with an input surface and an output surface, and bearing reflective and semi-reflective coatings arranged so as to optically multiplex an input laser beam entering the input surface, into multiple spatial-coherence reduced output laser beams exiting from the output surface. Through such optical multiplexing, and recombination, the coherence of the resulting laser beam is substantially reduced, as is the power of speckle pattern noise observed at an image detection array detecting an image of an object illuminated by said laser beam.