ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 29 -- United States Patent no. 12,210,194, issued on Jan. 28, was assigned to 3M Innovative Properties Co. (St. Paul, Minn.).
"Expanded beam optical ferrules" was invented by Changbao Ma (Austin, Texas).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An optical ferrule (200) includes an input surface (10) for receiving and transmitting a central light ray (21) from an optical fiber (20) attached to the optical ferrule. A light redirecting side (30) receives, along a first direction (40), the central light ray (21) transmitted by the input surface (10) and redirects the received light along a different second direction (41). The redirected central light ray (23) exits the optical ferrule t...