Scanner employing unilaterally conducting elements and including a circuit for generating a pointed voltage distribution

摘要

PICT:1121726/C4-C5/1 An electroluminescent device is used to produce a scanning beam of radiation. Fig. 2 shows an equivalent circuit of the device which may be a composite semi-conductor device (Fig. 1, not shown) having gallium arsenide or phosphide type light emitting sources 29, producing the scanning beam. The operation of the circuit of Fig. 2 is described with reference to its function in investigating a radiation pattern 64 (see Division G1). In this investigation, a signal is produced through amplifier 50 at terminal 52 representing the radiation falling on the detectors 29A-29F, which are made effective repetitively in sequence by feeding in signals from source 54 to give a repetitive scanning of the radiation pattern. In operating the device to emit radiation, the devices 29A-29F, now light-emitting sources, are made effective in sequence by means of source 54, but the amplifier 50 is used to vary the brightness of the emission by varying the current through the sources 29A-29F. The construction of the semi-conductor device is described in detail (see Division H1). The sequential activation of the sources 29A-29F is produced by the connection of the respective sources, through control diodes 28A-28F to two voltage gradients 46, 48, which can be varied by a sweep or sinusoidal signal from generator 54. The back-biasing on the diodes 28A-28F which normally prevents activation of the sources 29, is removed in sequence by this variation.