OPTICAL LIMITERS WITH THERMOCHROME MATERIAL AND NANOSTRUCTURES TO ENCLOSE OPENING PROTECTION
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- DE · DE
- Patent Type
- Patents
- Current Assignee / Owner
- THE BOEING CO
- Filing Date
- 2019-09-26
- Publication Date
- 2026-06-03
AI Technical Summary
Conventional aperture protection techniques are slow to react, unreliable, costly, and require high irradiance to activate, posing a threat to human eyes and sensors from potentially harmful light sources like laser pointers.
An optical limiter device incorporating thermochromic material and nanostructures that capture and amplify the electric field of harmful light, converting it into heat to transition the thermochromic material from a transparent to an opaque state, scattering the harmful light, and reverting back to transparent when the threat is removed.
Provides rapid, wide bandwidth protection against potentially harmful light with quick recovery, allowing safe passage of non-harmful light, and operates passively without bias circuitry for power efficiency and reduced complexity.