Optical: systems and elements – Mirror – Plural mirrors or reflecting surfaces
Reexamination Certificate
2002-02-19
2003-09-02
Sikder, Mohammad (Department: 2872)
Optical: systems and elements
Mirror
Plural mirrors or reflecting surfaces
C359S853000, C359S873000, C359S872000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06612705
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
Due to an ever growing shortage of conventional energy sources, there is an increasingly intense interest in harnessing solar energy. A limiting factor in the utilization of solar energy is the high cost of energy converters such as photovoltaic cells. Our invention provides a low cost means for achieving affordable solar energy by greatly reducing the cost of solar concentrators which increase (concentrate) the density of solar energy incident on the solar energy converter. For example, for the purpose of generating electricity, a large area of expensive solar cells may be replaced by a small area of high-grade photovoltaic solar cells operating in conjunction with the inexpensive intelligent mini-optics of our invention. Thus our invention can contribute to the goal of achieving environmentally clean energy on a large enough scale to be competitive with conventional energy sources.
Our invention is less expensive than conventional solar concentrators for two reasons. First due to miniaturization, the amount of material needed for the optical system is much less. Second, because our mini-optical solar concentrator is light-weight and flexible, it can easily be attached to existing structures. This is a great economic advantage over all existing solar concentrators which require the construction of a separate structure to support and orient them to intercept and properly reflect sunlight. Such separate structures must be able to survive gusts, windstorms, earthquakes, etc. The instant invention utilizes existing structures which are already capable of withstanding such inclement vicissitudes of nature.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many prior art patents that deal with twisting balls (gyricon) displays or separable balls displays. Electric or magnetic fields are used to orient or move these polarized or charged balls. To our knowledge none of the prior art utilizes the balls to optically concentrate (focus) light as in our invention. Furthermore the prior art neither teaches nor anticipates our application of the conversion of solar energy to electricity or any other form of energy. In one embodiment our invention incorporates balls with a shiny planar reflecting surface such as a metallic coating to give a high coefficient of reflectance. When the prior art refers to superior reflectance characteristics, they mean this in the context of displays with bi-colored balls e.g. black and white; or separable colored balls. In fact, the gyricon and separable ball prior art do not teach the focussing of light in any capacity. These verities are evident from an examination of the prior art. A large representative sample of the prior art will now be enumerated and described. This together with the references contained therein constitutes a comprehensive compendium of the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,332 issued to J. M. Crowley on May 19, 1998 deals with gyricon bi-colored balls whose reflectance is comparable with white paper. The object is to produce a monolayer gyricon display.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,808,783 issued to J. M. Crowley on Sep. 15, 1998 deals with gyricon bi-colored balls “having superior reflectance characteristics comparing favorably with those of white paper.” Again the objective is a display application.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,914,805 issued to J. M. Crowley on Jun. 22, 1999 utilizes two sets of gyricon bi-colored balls “having superior reflectance charactreristics comparing favorably with those of white paper” for display purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,091 issued to N. K. Sheridon and J. M. Crowley on Apr. 25, 2000 utilizes gyricon bi-colored cylinders. Again the objective is a display application.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,621 issued to E. Kishi, T. Yagi and T. Ikeda on Jun. 6, 2000 utilizes sets of different mono-colored polarized balls which are separable for a display device.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,097,531 issued to N. K. Sheridon on Aug. 1, 2000 teaches a method for making magnetized elements (balls or cylinders) for a gyricon display.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,120.588 issued to J. M. Jacobson on Sep. 19, 2000 describes a display device which uses mono-colored elements that are electronically addressable to change the pattern of the display.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,174,153 issued to N. K. Sheridon on Jan. 16, 2001 teaches apparatus for this purpose for a gyricon display.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,192.890 B1 issued to D. H. Levy and J.-P. F. Cherry on Feb. 27, 2001 is for a changeable tattoo display using magnetic or electric fields to manipulate particles in the display.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,211,998 B1 issued to N. K. Sheridon on Apr. 3, 2001 teaches a method of addressing a display by a combination of magnetic and electric means. U.S. Pat. No. 6,262,707 B1 issued to N. K. Sheridon on Jul. 17, 2001 has a similar teaching for a gyricon display.
A large number of prior art devices have been described, all of which are directed at addressing and changing the pattern of a display device. While there are other such prior art teachings, none of them teaches or anticipates our invention.
DEFINITIONS
“Bipolar” refers herein to either a magnetic assemblage with the two poles north and south, or an electric system with + and − charges separated as in an electret.
“Collector” as used herein denotes any device for the conversion of solar energy into other forms such as electricity, heat, pressure, concentrated light, etc.
“Compaction” refers to increasing the density of a collection (ensemble) of objects by geometrical arrangement or other means.
“Elastomer” is a material such as synthetic rubber or plastic, which at ordinary temperatures can be stretched substantially under low stress, and upon immediate release of the stress, will return with force to approximately its original length.
“Electret” refers to a solid dielectric possessing persistent electric polarization, by virtue of a long time constant for decay of charge separation.
“Electrophoresis or Electrophoretic” is an electrochemical process in which colloidal particles or macromolecules with a net electric charge migrate in a solution under the influence of an electric current. It is also known as cataphoresis.
“Focussing planar mirror” is a thin almost planar mirror constructed with stepped varying angles so as to have the optical properties of a much thicker concave (or convex) mirror. It can heuristically be thought of somewhat as the projection of thin equi-angular segments of small portions of a thick mirror upon a planar surface. It is a focusing planar reflecting surface much like a planar Fresnel lens is a focusing transmitting surface. The tracking-focussing property of an ensemble of tiny elements which make up the focussing planar mirror are an essential feature of the instant invention.
“Heliostat” denotes a clock-driven mounting for automatically and continuously pointing apparatus in the direction of the sun.
“Immiscible” herein refers to two fluids which are incapable of mixing.
“Packing fraction” herein refers to the fraction of an available volume or area occupied by a collection (ensemble) of objects.
“Polar gradient” as used herein relates to magnetic optical elements that are controlled in the non-gyricon mode such as in the magnetic field gradient mode.
“Monopolar” as used herein denotes mono-charged optical elements that are controlled in the non-gyricon mode such as the electrophoretic mode.
“Rayleigh limit” relates to the optical limit of resolution which can be used to determine the smallest size of the elements that constitute a mini-mirror. Lord Rayleigh discovered this limit from a study of the appearance of the diffraction patterns of closely spaced point sources.
“Spin glass” refers to a wide variety of materials which contain interacting atomic magnetic moments. They possess a form of disorder, in which the magnetic susceptability undergoes an abrupt change at what is called the freezing temperature for the spin system.
“Thermoplastic” refers to materials with a molecular structure that will soften when heated and harden when cooled. This includes materials such as
Davidson Mark
Rabinowitz Mario
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