Radiant energy – Photocells; circuits and apparatus – Photocell controls its own optical systems
Patent
1989-03-03
1990-03-20
Nelms, David C.
Radiant energy
Photocells; circuits and apparatus
Photocell controls its own optical systems
356152, 25022729, 350169, G01J 120
Patent
active
049103954
ABSTRACT:
An improvement to a precise optical tracking system is described. The system is comprised of a three-sided transparent pyramid with a sharp vertex. The pyramid is used to split the incident beam into three parts, which are transmitted to respective photodetectors. The signals from the photodetectors are used for tracking. This invention makes several important improvements to an optical tracking system. The amount of energy incident on each photodetector is increased by 33% over a known four-detector system. The sensor inherently possesses a point vertex formed by three inclined surfaces, regardless of manufacturing tolerances. This directly contributes to increased sensor accuracy in comparison to known four-sided splitters. By reducing the number of sensors to three, the system's mechanical and electronic size and complexity is reduced.
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Allen Stephone B.
Brown Laurence R.
Mangels Alfred J.
Nelms David C.
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