[Federal Register: August 14, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 156)]
[Notices]
[Page 46489-46490]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr14au06-60]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
National Institutes of Health
Government-Owned Inventions; Availability for Licensing
AGENCY: National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, HHS.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The inventions listed below are owned by an agency of the U.S.
Government and are available for licensing in the U.S. in accordance
with 35 U.S.C. 207 to achieve expeditious commercialization of results
of federally-funded research and development. Foreign patent
applications are filed on selected inventions to extend market coverage
for companies and may also be available for licensing.
ADDRESSES: Licensing information and copies of the U.S. patent
applications listed below may be obtained by writing to the indicated
licensing contact at the Office of Technology Transfer, National
Institutes of Health, 6011 Executive Boulevard, Suite 325, Rockville,
Maryland 20852-3804; telephone: 301/496-7057; fax: 301/402-0220. A
signed Confidential Disclosure Agreement will be required to receive
copies of the patent applications.
Hollow Waveguide Laser Delivery System for Digital Particle Image
Velocity
Description of Technology
Available for licensing and commercial development is an all-
hollow-waveguide laser delivery system used for effective digital
particle image velocimetry (DPIV) illumination. The System incorporates
two key optical hollow waveguide components: An uncoated funnel-shaped
hollow glass taper for a direct laser-to-taper coupling and a flexible
hollow core waveguide for precise high-peak-power laser delivery. The
principle of operation of the uncoated hollow taper is based on
grazing-incidence effect. The optical taper is used for direct lens-
free launching of laser radiation including from powerful lasers into
fibers and waveguides. Because of the mutual action of the direct
parallel laser excitation, the mode coupling process and mode filtering
effect, the hollow taper serves as a mode converter that transforms the
highly multimode profile of the input laser emission into a high-
quality Gaussian-shaped profile at the taper output. Moreover, because
of the lower power density of the output laser beam and its high
causality profile, the
[[Page 46490]]
taper ensures higher damage threshold for the delivery waveguide in
comparison to the conventional lens laser-to-fiber coupling. To improve
the high-peak-power delivery capability of the proposed allow-hollow-
waveguide DPIV illumination system, instead of a conventional solid-
core fiber link, we have used a cyclic olefin polymer (COP)-coated
hollow glass waveguide which is designed to minimize the waveguide
attenuation losses at a typical DPIV laser wavelength of 532-nm. This
waveguide provides a significantly higher laser power delivery
capability and higher damage threshold. The all-hollow-waveguide DPIV
laser delivery system offers essential advanced features over
conventional bulk-optics-based delivery techniques in terms of
formatting thin (0.5-1.0 mm), wide (10 mm or wider) and uniform laser
illumination sheet; high-peak-power laser delivery without damaging
effects (> 1 GW/cm2), flexibility, miniaturization, simplified
alignment, immunity to external influence (including vibrations and
angular laser beam drift), and safe and confined laser delivery.
Applications
2. Optics; Particle imaging: Velocimetry.
Market
4. Illumination, high peak laser powered delivery.
Inventors
6. Ilko K. Ilev, Ronald A. Robinson, Ronald W. Waynant (FDA).
Publications
1. IK Ilev et al., ``Grazing-Incidence-Based Hollow Taper for
Infrared Laser-to-Fiber Coupling,'' Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 74,
1999, pp. 2921-2923.
2. IK Ilev et al., ``Uncoated Hollow Taper as a Single Optical
Funnel for Laser Delivery,'' Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 70,
1999, pp. 3840-3843.
3. IK Ilev et al., ``Ultraviolet Laser Delivery Using an Uncoated
Hollow Taper,'' IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, Vol. 36, 2000, pp.
944-948.
4. IK Ilev et al., ``Attenuation Measurement of Infrared Optical
Fibers Using a Hollow-Taper-Based Coupling Method,'' Applied Optics,
Vol. 39, 2000, pp. 3192-3196.
5. RA Robinson et al., ``Design and Optimization of a Flexible
High-Peak Power Laser-to-Fiber Coupled Illumination System Used in
Digital Particle Image Velocimetry'', Review of Scientific Instruments,
Vol. 75, 2004, pp. 4856-4862.
Patent Status
8. U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/730,866 filed 28 Oct 2005
(HHS Reference No. AE-015-2006/0-US-01).
Licensing Status
10. Available for non-exclusive or exclusive licensing.
Licensing Contact
Michael A. Shmilovich, Esq.; 301/435-5019. shmilovm.@mail.nih.gov.
mailto:shmilovm@mail.nih.gov.>
Collaborative Research Opportunity
The Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and
Radiological Health is seeking statements of capability or interest
from parties interested in collaborative research to further develop,
evaluate, or commercialize this technology. Please contact the
inventors at 301/827-4685 for more information.
Dated: July 28, 2006.
Steven M. Ferguson,
Director, Division of Technology Development and Transfer; Office of
Technology Transfer, National Institutes of Health.
[FR Doc. 06-6873 Filed 8-11-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-M