Correlation Spectrometer Using Synthetic Spectra and Diffractive Masks

The patent replaces physical reference cells with synthetic reference spectra stored in memory. These synthetic spectra are computer-generated representations of target compound absorption patterns, allowing the system to simulate multiple reference compounds without requiring physical cells for each one. This copying approach enables detection of multiple chemical species while maintaining a compact device size.

The patent substitutes the mechanical/optical system of multiple physical reference cells with an electronic/computational system. Instead of using actual reference cells that require physical space and mechanical handling, the system uses digitally stored spectral data processed by a computer, replacing the mechanical complexity with electronic information processing.

The patent changes the approach from passive optical filtering to active computational spectral processing. Instead of relying on bandpass filters to limit the spectral range and improve signal-to-background ratio, the system uses digital signal processing techniques to enhance the correlation signal while maintaining access to the full spectral range, thereby preserving detector dynamic range.

The patent introduces a computer-based correlation processing system as an intermediary between the detector and the final measurement result. This computational intermediary performs spectral correlation analysis that can extract weak absorption signals from the full spectrum without requiring physical bandpass filtering, thus maintaining detector dynamic range while achieving high measurement precision.