ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,228,434, issued on Feb. 18, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).
"Overlapping fiber gratings" was invented by Mark E. Froggatt (Blacksburg, Va.) and Brooks Childers (Christiansburg, Va.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Described are optical fibers, e.g., for use in stress-sensing or shape-sensing applications, that use overlapping grating configurations with chirped gratings to facilitate strain delay registration. In accordance with various embodiments, a fiber core may, for instance, have two overlapping sets of chirped gratings that differ in the direction of the chirp between the first and second sets...