ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,436,242, issued on Oct. 7, was assigned to SILICON LIGHT MACHINES Corp. (San Jose, Calif.).
"High contrast MEMS phased-array" was invented by Stephen Hamann (Mountain View, Calif.) and Olav Solgaard (Stanford, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Optical systems including Microelectromechanical System devices (MEMS) phased-arrays and methods for operating the same to improve contrast are provided. Generally, the system includes a light source, illumination optics, and MEMS phased-arrays operable to receive a light-beam from the illumination optics and to project light onto a far-field scene and to steer an area of illumination over the f...