{
  "patent_number": "US RE48492",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How to Build Thin, Flat Light-Focusing Panels",
  "original_title": "USRE48492E1 - Collimating illumination systems employing a waveguide",
  "summary": "A design for a thin, flat light-guiding panel that uses tiny built-in lenses and notches to turn trapped light into a focused, directional beam.",
  "what_it_does": "This patent describes a way to make light-emitting panels that are very thin but still produce a focused, directional beam of light. It uses a planar waveguide—a flat, transparent sheet—that traps light inside using total internal reflection. Inside this sheet, the inventor places small 'light extraction elements' (like tiny notches or bumps) that redirect the light toward 'linear collimating elements' (like long, thin lenses) built into the surface. These lenses then grab the redirected light and straighten it out into a tight beam, rather than letting it scatter in all directions.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover standard LED panels that use simple diffusers instead of integrated collimating lenses.",
    "Does not cover light guides that lack the specific mathematical relationship between lens curvature and material refractive index defined in claim 1.",
    "Does not cover systems that rely on external lenses placed outside the waveguide structure."
  ],
  "filed": "2017-07-25",
  "granted": "2021-03-30",
  "expires": null,
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "S V V Tech Innovations Inc",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/s-v-v-tech-innovations-inc",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Sergiy Vasylyev",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/sergiy-vasylyev"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 2,
  "tags": [
    "consumer_electronics",
    "mechanical",
    "semiconductors"
  ],
  "abstract": "An illumination system employing an elongated waveguide having a non-round transversal cross-section and having at least a portion of its surface shaped in the form of a linear collimating element. The waveguide further employs at least one array of light extracting features distributed along a longitudinal axis of the waveguide and disposed in the focal area of the respective linear collimating element. Each light extracting feature has an active aperture which is substantially less than the light receiving aperture of the linear collimating element and is configured to redirect light propagating in the waveguide generally towards a normal direction with respect to the longitudinal axis of the waveguide. Light rays redirected by the light extracting features are further collimated by the linear collimating element and exit from the waveguide in the form of a directional beam.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/RE48492/learning-thermostat",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/RE48492/learning-thermostat/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/USRE48492",
  "relatedPatents": []
}