JOHN MAGIE COFFIN
Pilots at North Rd, Blue Mounds, WI

5883712, Mar 16, 1999

May 21, 1997

8/859971

John M. Coffin - Blue Mounds WI

Nicolet Instrument Corporation - Madison WI

G01B 902

356346

An interferometer that may be used in an infrared spectrometer has a housing with a fixed mirror, a perpendicular moving mirror, and a beamsplitter diagonally between them. A moving bearing is mounted to a stationary bearing for translation back and forth along a longitudinal axis, and the moving mirror is mounted to a support member which itself is mounted to the moving bearing to allow pivoting of the mirror support member about a pivot point. A permanent magnet is mounted to the support member and extends along the longitudinal axis, with one of the poles of the magnet formed at the free end of the magnet along the longitudinal axis. A main magnet coil mounted to the housing has an inner bore which extends around the free end of the permanent magnet such that current supplied to the main coil attracts or repels the magnet to drive the moving bearing and the moving mirror in translation back and forth along the longitudinal axis. Side coils are mounted adjacent to the main coil perpendicular to each other to provide magnetic fields in orthogonal directions to the pole at the free end of the permanent magnet, to selectively apply torque to the support member about its pivot point and pivot the face of the moving mirror. The longitudinal position and the deflection of the face of the moving mirror from a perpendicular can be detected and controlled by control of current supplied to the coils.

5291022, Mar 1, 1994

Jul 1, 1992

7/907127

David M. Drake - Cottage Grove WI
Charles D. Woodward - Stoughton WI
John M. Coffin - Blue Mounds WI

Nicolet Instrument Corporation - Madison WI

H01K 102

250504R

An infrared source for use in an infrared spectrometer includes an insulator core having a containment cavity, an outlet port in communication with the containment cavity, and an electrically heated infrared element mounted in the containment cavity with a portion thereof facing the outlet port and with the walls of the containment cavity closely spaced to the infrared element. The insulator core is formed of a ceramic fiber material which has excellent resistance to heat and very low thermal conductivity so that very little heat from the infrared element escapes from the insulator core except as infrared radiation through the outlet port. The insulator core is preferably mounted within a central cavity of a metal housing, and may be sealed off from the ambient atmosphere by an infrared transmissive window sealed to an outlet opening in the housing. The electrical supply lines from the infrared element may extend through an opening in the housing which is closed and sealed to inhibit the passage of gases from the ambient atmosphere into the interior of the housing. Where the infrared element is sealed off from the ambient atmosphere in this manner, potentially corrosive gases will be inhibited from reaching the hot infrared element.

8547555, Oct 1, 2013

Apr 27, 2012

13/458000

Michael S. Bradley - Edgerton WI, US
Federico Izzia - Middleton WI, US
John M. Coffin - Blue Mounds WI, US

Thermo Electron Scientific Instruments LLC - Madison WI

G01N 21/55

356445

The present application is directed to a novel spectrometer configured with a built-in attenuated total reflectance (ATR) and accessory compartment. In particular, an arranged sample analysis compartment provided by the spectrometer performs attenuated total reflectance analysis of a sample and includes a crystal, a tip configured to press the sample against the crystal, and a detector configured to detect light after reflection within the crystal. As part of the configuration, an actuator moves an optical element between a first position wherein the optical element receives modulated light and reflects the modulated light toward the crystal and a second position wherein the optical element does not receive the modulated light so as to instead allow an additionally configured optical component to receive the modulated light.

2012012, May 17, 2012

Dec 7, 2010

12/962393

John Magie Coffin - Blue Mounds WI, US

G01J 3/45, G02B 26/00

356452, 359290

A novel means of provided a hybrid flexure mounted moving mirror component in an interferometer is introduced herein. In particular, a linear bearing in combination with a novel flexure mounting having novel tilt and velocity control of the moving optical component is provided. Such an arrangement enables correction of the errors at the mirror itself while also solving the problem of isolating vibration and noise caused by the imperfections in the bearing surfaces used in many conventional interferometers. Using such a coupled flexure mounting of the present invention, in addition to the above benefits, also enhances velocity control because the resultant low mass of the moving mirror assembly enables the systems disclosed herein to respond faster than conventional mirror velocity controlled interferometer instruments and with a lower velocity error so as to provide a more stable and lower noise spectra from the analytical instrument.

2012012, May 17, 2012

Nov 11, 2010

12/944512

John Magie COFFIN - Blue Mounds WI, US

G01J 3/45

356455

A novel means of provided velocity control of an interferometer wherein one of the moving components includes the beamsplitter element is introduced herein. Using a moving beamsplitter and coupled flexure mounting allows improved velocity control because the low mass of the beamsplitter enables the systems disclosed herein to respond faster than conventional mirror velocity controlled interferometer instruments with a resultant lower velocity error so as to provide a more stable and lower noise spectra from the analytical instrument. The control of the velocity of the beamsplitter and if desired, one or both of the configured mirrors, reduces the time wasted changing velocity at the ends of each scan. The result is an increase in data collection available in any given experiment time frame. Such desirable arrangements of the present invention thus allow scans to be collected at higher rates, which beneficially increase the ability to monitor rapidly changing systems.

2014000, Jan 9, 2014

Jun 28, 2013

13/931348

John Magie COFFIN - Blue Mounds WI, US
Damian W. ASHMEAD - Belleville WI, US
Todd C. STROTHER - Cottage Grove WI, US

G01N 21/25

2503382, 25033901, 25033905, 2503384, 2503383

The present invention is thus directed to an automated system and method of varying the optical path length in a sample that a light from a spectrophotometer must travel through. Such arrangements allow a user to easily vary the optical path length while also providing the user with an easy way to clean and prepare a transmission cell for optical interrogation. Such path length control can be automatically controlled by a programmable control system to quickly collect and stores data from different path lengths as needed for different spectrographic analysis. Such a methodology and system, as presented herein, is able to return best-match spectra with far fewer computational steps and greater speed than if all possible combinations of reference spectra are considered.

5896197, Apr 20, 1999

Jan 8, 1992

7/818162

John Coffin - Blue Mounds WI

Nicolet Instrument Corporation - Madison WI

G01B 902

356346

A bearing for allowing the movement of a movable mirror in a Michelson interferometer includes a stationary hollow glass cylinder and a movable assembly which includes the movable mirror and at least one graphite member, the graphite member being slidably disposed within the bore of the glass cylinder. Preferably, there is an anti-rotation system for the movable assembly which includes a post coupled with the movable assembly, a magnet mounted on one end of the post and a stationary guide rail positioned substantially parallel to the axis of rotation of the movable assembly and at a predetermined radial distance from the movable assembly.

7119904, Oct 10, 2006

Jan 13, 2004

10/755928

John M. Coffin - Blue Mounds WI, US
Robert R. Badeau - Stoughton WI, US
Michael R. Daun - Madison WI, US

Thermo Electron Scientific Instruments Corporation - Madison WI

G01B 9/02

356451, 356450, 356319, 250504 R

An infrared spectrometer includes an infrared source system that is stabilized to provide a substantially constant output light intensity. The infrared source system includes a source element adapted to receive electrical power and to emit light at an intensity related to the electrical power received by the source element. A light detector is mounted in position to receive light emitted from the source element and to provide an output signal related to the intensity of the light received by the detector. A feedback control loop receives the signal from the detector and provides electrical power to the source element to maintain the intensity of the light output from the source element at a selected level as detected by the detector.

7456950, Nov 25, 2008

Aug 28, 2007

11/846508

Francis J. Deck - Madison WI, US
John Magie Coffin - Blue Mounds WI, US

Thermo Electron Scientific Instruments LLC - Madison WI

G01J 3/02, G02B 17/00

356300, 356326, 25033907, 359350

In a spectrometer, preferably in a spectrometric microscope, light from a specimen is collected at a collector objective element and delivered to a camera element, which in turn provides the light to a photosensitive detector. A focal plane is provided between the collector objective element and the camera element, and one or more aperture arrays may be situated in the focal plane to restrict the detector's field of view of the specimen to the areas within the apertures. By utilizing aperture arrays with apertures of different sizes and shapes, the spatial resolution of the spectrometer readings may be varied without the need to vary the optics of the spectrometer. As a result, if the optics are optimized to minimize vignetting, spatial resolution may be varied without adverse increases in vignetting.

2011006, Mar 24, 2011

Sep 18, 2009

12/562688

John R. IVERSON - Stoughton WI, US
John Magie Coffin - Blue Mounds WI, US

H01L 31/00

2503384, 25033907

An infrared (IR) source apparatus that includes a desired infrared source element coupled to an insulating housing so to minimize overall source inefficiency at desired optical bandwidths is introduced. The insulation itself is machined or configured in a way so that the infrared source element is in contact with a designed cavity in the insulation so that the IR source image becomes the average of the insulation material and the infrared element. Such an arrangement of the present invention increases the emissivity of the IR source below about 1500 wave numbers, more often, below about 1100 wave numbers, and even more particularly, at about 1079 wave numbers. Accordingly, the combined emissivity of the infrared source and the insulation substantially enhances spectral emission and eliminates or reduces spectral artifacts from the formation of oxides on the infrared source surfaces.