Optical: systems and elements – Lens – With support
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-05
2002-03-19
Mack, Ricky (Department: 2873)
Optical: systems and elements
Lens
With support
C359S822000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06359741
ABSTRACT:
FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for adjusting the attitude and position of an optical element such as a plane mirror, a plane beam splitter, and a prism.
2. Description of the Background Art
An optical apparatus uses various types of optical elements such as plane mirrors, plane beam splitters, prisms, cubic beam splitters, cube corners, lenses and wavelength plates. It is necessary to adjust the position of such an optical element to be mounted on an optical apparatus and set its optical axis to a predetermined direction. To this end, a device for adjusting the attitude and position of an optical element is mounted on the optical apparatus. Various devices for adjusting the attitude and position of an optical element are known. Of these, a typical device is shown in FIGS.
2
.
FIG. 2A
is a plan view of the adjusting device and
FIG. 2B
is a right side view thereof. In the device shown in
FIGS. 2
, in order to allow an upper plate
30
to roll, pitch and yaw, the upper plate
30
is made rotatable about a tubular rod
32
inserted in opposing V-grooves
31
. The distal end of the upper plate
30
is pushed by an adjusting screw
33
meshed with the upper plate
30
to thereby rotate the upper plate
30
about the tubular rod
32
. Forces exerted by right and left two extension springs
34
are applied to a middle area between the rotation center and pushing point. Therefore, the opposing V-grooves
31
, tubular rod
32
, adjusting screw
33
and a middle plate
35
are made in contact with each other. By rotating the adjusting screw
33
, the attitude of the upper plate
30
relative to the middle plate
35
is made adjustable.
With a similar structure described above, the attitude of the middle plate
35
relative to a lower plate
37
is made adjustable. In this case, other opposing V-grooves
38
are formed along a direction perpendicular to the opposing V grooves
31
for the upper plate
30
. A rotary shaft
39
is fixed to the bottom surface of the lower plate
37
and rotatively fitted in an unrepresented hole formed in the base of an optical apparatus on which the adjusting device is mounted. In this manner, this adjusting device can adjust the position and attitude of an optical element, including yawing, pitching and rolling, and maintain and fix a desired attitude.
Problem to be Solved
With this adjusting device according to conventional techniques, however, when the three angles for yawing, pitching and rolling are adjusted, a height of the upper plate
30
changes so that this height is required to be adjusted by using another means.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide a device of adjusting the attitude and position of an optical element, capable of adjusting the rolling, pitching and yawing angles of an upper plate serving as a mount plate for the optical element, and after this adjustment, reliably fixing the upper plate with six points constraint and adjusting the distance L from the reference plane on which the device is mounted to the upper surface of the upper plate.
Means of Solution to the Problem
In order to solve the above-described problem, the invention provides a device for adjusting the attitude and position of an optical element, comprising: an upper plate having an optical element fixing part formed on an upper surface side of the upper plate and three V-grooves formed on a lower surface side of the upper plate at an equal angular pitch; an adjusting screw mount plate having three female screw portions formed at an equal angular pitch on an upper surface side of the adjusting screw mount plate opposing the lower surface side of the upper plate and a spring engaging part formed in a central area of the adjusting screw mount plate; three adjusting screws each having a ball at a top of the adjusting screw for abutting on a corresponding one of the V-groove and a male screw portion to be threaded with a corresponding one of the female screw portions of the adjusting screw mount plate; and a spring to be extended between a spring hook formed on the upper plate in a central area and a spring hook formed on the adjusting screw mount plate. The adjusting screw mount plate is rotatively mounted on a fixed member.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
An embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to
FIGS. 1A and 1B
.
FIGS. 1A
is a plan view of a device for adjusting the attitude and position of an optical element according to an embodiment of the invention, and
FIG. 1B
is a cross sectional view of the device. In
FIGS. 1A and 1B
, a plurality of screw holes
3
are formed in an upper plate
1
on its upper surface
2
side. These holes
3
are used for fixing a frame on which an optical element such as a plane mirror, a beam splitter and a wavelength plate is mounted. Three V-shaped concave planes
5
are formed in the upper plate
1
on its lower surface
4
side, at an equal angular pitch of 120° along a direction from the outer periphery to the center of the upper plate
1
.
A male screw
7
of an adjusting screw
6
is engaged with a female screw
10
formed in a middle plate
8
. The rotary ring
11
has a corrugated surface on its circumferential side wall. As this rotary ring
11
is manually rotated, the adjusting screw
6
can move along its axial direction. Three adjusting screws
6
are mounted at an equal angular pitch of 120° corresponding to the positions of the V-shaped concave plates
5
. The small ball
12
is fixed to the top of the adjusting screen
6
and fitted in the V-shaped concave plate
5
. The small balls
12
of the adjusting screws
6
support the three V-shaped concave plates
5
.
A spring hook
13
is formed on the upper plate
1
at its central area, and another spring hook
15
is formed in a central cylindrical portion
14
of the middle plate
8
. Between these spring hooks
13
and
15
, a spring
16
is extended. Therefore, the V-shaped concave plate
5
of the upper plate
1
and the small ball
12
are made always in pressure contact with each other, and at the same time, the adjusting screw
6
is prevented from any backlash at its threading portion.
As described above, since each small ball
12
is pushed against the V-shaped concave plate
5
, the small ball contacts this plate
5
at two points. Therefore, the upper plate
1
can be constrained by six points of the three V-shaped concave planes. The six degree of freedoms in the space can be reliably fixed.
A lower plate
19
has a central hole
17
into which the outer diameter surface of the central cylindrical portion
14
of the middle plate
8
is fitted. The lower plate
19
rotatively supports the middle plate
8
. A fixing screw
18
for fixing the middle plate
8
to the lower plate
19
passes through a laterally elongated hole
20
formed through the middle plate
8
. After the middle plate
8
is rotated to a desired position by rotating a projecting shaft
21
mounted on the circumferential side wall of the middle plate
8
with fingers or the like, the middle plate
8
can be fixed to the lower plate
19
at this position by using the fixing screw
18
. Screws
22
are formed on the lower plate
19
to fix the adjusting device to an optical apparatus.
In operation of the adjusting device structured as above, an optical element is fixed to the upper surface of the upper plate
1
by using the screw holes
3
, and the lower plate
19
is fixed to an optical apparatus by using the screw
22
. Thereafter, any of the three adjusting screws
6
is rotated to adjust the attitude of the optical element to thereby adjust the rolling, pitching and yawing angles. By rotating all the three screws by the same amount, the distance L from the upper plate to the optical apparatus can be adjusted without changing the attitude once set. Therefore, even if this distance L is changed while the attitude of the optical element is adjusted, the original distance L can be recovered. Without adjusting the attitude, the distance L only
Kurosawa Tomizo
Noguchi Hironori
Osawa Sonko
Takatsuji Toshiyuki
Agency of Industrial Science and Technology
Farber Martin A.
Mack Ricky
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