Tunable light source system with wavelength measurement for a hyper-spectral imaging system
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A tunable light source system, comprising:
- a tunable light source that emits a tunable light beam having a tunable center wavelength λ
C;
an angle-adjustable filter and an angle-adjustment unit operably connected to the angle-adjustable filter to adjust a filter angle to tune the tunable center wavelength λ
C of the tunable light beam;
a light-deflecting element disposed in the tunable light beam downstream of the angle-adjustable filter to deflect at least a portion of the tunable light beam that passes through the angle-adjustable filter;
a reference filter having a reference bandwidth and a reference-filter function SRT(λ
) that is substantially linear, the reference filter being disposed to filter the deflected portion of the tunable light beam to form a filtered light beam;
a single photodetector arranged to detect the filtered light beam and generate a single detector electrical signal representative of a detected light spectrum; and
a controller operably connected to the tunable light source and the single photodetector, the controller being configured to receive the single detector electrical signal and determine therefrom the tunable center wavelength λ
C of the tunable light beam.
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Abstract
A tunable light source system with wavelength measurement capability for a hyper-spectral imaging system is disclosed. A method includes reference filtering a portion of a tunable light beam while tuning the center wavelength, detecting with at least one photodetector the reference-filtered tunable light beam and generating therefrom at least one detector signal that varies with the center wavelength, and determining a tunable center wavelength based on the at least one detector signal.
19 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A tunable light source system, comprising:
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a tunable light source that emits a tunable light beam having a tunable center wavelength λ
C;an angle-adjustable filter and an angle-adjustment unit operably connected to the angle-adjustable filter to adjust a filter angle to tune the tunable center wavelength λ
C of the tunable light beam;a light-deflecting element disposed in the tunable light beam downstream of the angle-adjustable filter to deflect at least a portion of the tunable light beam that passes through the angle-adjustable filter; a reference filter having a reference bandwidth and a reference-filter function SRT(λ
) that is substantially linear, the reference filter being disposed to filter the deflected portion of the tunable light beam to form a filtered light beam;a single photodetector arranged to detect the filtered light beam and generate a single detector electrical signal representative of a detected light spectrum; and a controller operably connected to the tunable light source and the single photodetector, the controller being configured to receive the single detector electrical signal and determine therefrom the tunable center wavelength λ
C of the tunable light beam. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of measuring a center wavelength λ
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C of a tunable light beam from a tunable light source, comprising;
a) filtering a portion of a tunable light beam while tuning the center wavelength λ
C by passing a broadband light beam through an angle-adjustable filter and adjusting an angle of the angle-adjustable filter to form a first light beam;b) passing the first light beam through a reference filter to form a reference-filtered tunable light beam, wherein the reference filter has reference-filter function SRT(λ
) that is substantially linear between a lower wavelength λ
L and an upper wavelength λ
U;c) detecting with a single photodetector a portion of the reference-filtered tunable light beam and generating therefrom a single detector signal SD(λ
C) that varies with the center wavelength λ
C; andd) determining the center wavelength λ
C based only on the single detector signal SD(λ
C). - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13)
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C of a tunable light beam from a tunable light source, comprising;
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14. A tunable light source system that emits a wavelength-tunable light beam and measures a center wavelength λ
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C of the wavelength-tunable light beam, comprising;
an angle-adjustable filter and an angle-adjustment unit operably connected to the angle-adjustable filter to adjust a filter angle to tune the tunable center wavelength λ
C of the wavelength-tunable light beam;a light-deflecting element disposed downstream of the angle-adjustable filter and arranged to deflect at least a portion of the wavelength-tunable light beam; a reference filter having a linearly varying reference bandwidth and that filters the deflected portion of the wavelength-tunable light beam to form a filtered light beam; a single photodetector that detects the filtered light beam and generates a single detector electrical signal representative of a detected light spectrum; and a controller operably connected to the tunable light source and the single photodetector and configured to receive the single detector electrical signal and determine therefrom the center wavelength. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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C of the wavelength-tunable light beam, comprising;
Specification