Patent ID: 9606229
Date: 2017-03-28
CPC Classifications: G01J,G01S,G02B,G08B

Claim:
1. An apparatus comprising: a near infrared (NIR) light emitting diode (LED) having a predominant axis of NIR light transmission from the NIR LED; and a lens that disperses NIR light received from the NIR LED with respect to first and second planes, the first and second planes being normal to each other and intersecting along the predominant axis, the lens having an air to lens light entry boundary where light from the NIR LED enters a surface of the lens and a lens to air boundary where the light exits the lens in each of the first and second planes, the first and second planes intersecting with the surface, wherein an intersection formed by the second plane with the surface is a line that is concave on each side of the predominant axis, wherein a radius of the air to lens light entry boundary of the line successively increases over each span of a predetermined number of degrees progressing outwards along the line from the predominant axis, and wherein the lens optimizes available NIR energy from the NIR LED by redistributing the available NIR energy in a region to be protected in a high intensity and uniform manner.