Patent ID: 6782167
Filing Date: 2004-08-24
Classification: A61B,A61N,G02B

Abstract:
An improved light beam splitter apparatus capable of forming eight output beams from an initial beam input, said splitter comprising:an arrangement of seven beam splitters each of which splits an incident beam into two exit beams of equal energy at a particular incident angle for each splitter, at least some of said particular incident angles being different from each other for the different splitters, said apparatus comprising a first of the seven splitters, having a first splitter particular incident angle, and being arranged for receiving said beam input at the first particular incident angle; second and third of the seven splitters having second and third particular incident angles, and being arrangeable so that the exit beams of the first splitter are directed to the second and third splitters, as their incident beams at the first particular incident angle; each of said second and third splitters providing two exit beams when receiving an incident beam; fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh of the seven splitters, having fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh particular incident angles, and being arrangeable so that the exit beams from said second and third splitters are directed to said fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh splitters at the first particular incident angle as their incident beam; each of said fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh splitters providing two exit beams when receiving an incident beam; the second and third particular incident angles being closer to the first particular incident angle than the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh particular incident angles, the variance in energy between the two exit beams of the first splitter being less that 1 percent; the variance in energy between the two exit beams of each of the second and third splitters being less than about 2 percent at an incident beam angle about equal to the first particular incident angle and the variance in energy between the two exit beams of each of the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh splitters being less than about 5 percent at an incident beam angle about equal to the first particular incident angle, said apparatus being capable of providing at least eight output beams varying in energy from each other by less than about 10 percent; wherein the improvement comprises using a collimated non-polarized light beam output from a fiber optic as an initial input light beam and using non-polarizing beam splitters to split the beams.