US Patent Issued to National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia on Sept. 9 for "System and method of optical scanning with detection of return signals using a star coupler" (New Mexico Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,411,215, issued on Sept. 9, was assigned to National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC (Albuquerque, N.M.).

"System and method of optical scanning with detection of return signals using a star coupler" was invented by Michael Gehl (Albuquerque, N.M.), Christopher Michael Long (Albuquerque, N.M.), Christopher Todd DeRose (Albuquerque, N.M.) and Paul Davids (Albuquerque, N.M.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A LIDAR system or the like uses a star coupler to distribute an input light beam over a steerable array. The input light beam is injected through an input signal waveguide on the input side of the star coupler. The light ...