Thermally cooled imaging apparatus
OwnerRichard G. Washington, Thao D. Hovankyinventors
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Abstract
Systems and methods for housing and/or cooling image sensors, for example, for use in video camera assemblies or any other application employing image sensors. The image sensors may be cooled within a sealed environment (e.g., vacuum sealed or dry gas sealed environment) to minimize the amount of power required by reducing heat transfer due to convection, and to substantially eliminate problems of fogging or condensation of the image sensor. In one embodiment, the systems and methods may be employed for cooling CMOS image sensors to improve low light performance of the CMOS sensors.
Claims69
A cooled image sensor enclosure apparatus, comprising:
- one or more chamber enclosure components defining an image sensor chamber and an image sensor chamber window;
- an image sensor disposed within said image sensor chamber;
- and
- an image sensor cooling mechanism configured to transfer heat to an environment external to said image sensor chamber.
A cooled image sensor enclosure apparatus, comprising:
- first and second chamber enclosure components coupled together to define an image sensor chamber therebetween, an image sensor window being defined in at least one of said first and second chamber enclosure components;
- an image sensor disposed within said image sensor chamber, said image sensor being operatively positioned within said image sensor chamber so as to receive light transmitted though said image sensor window into said image sensor chamber from an environment external to said image sensor chamber;
- one or more heat sink features disposed on an external surface of at least one of said first and second chamber enclosure components;
- a thermal electric cooling device thermally coupled between said image sensor and said external heat sink features, said thermal electric cooling device being configured to cool said image sensor by transferring heat from said image sensor to said external heat sink features.
A video camera assembly, comprising:
- a video camera optical block, said video camera optical block comprising a cooled image sensor enclosure apparatus, said cooled image sensor enclosure apparatus comprising:
- one or more chamber enclosure components defining an image sensor chamber and an image sensor chamber window,
- an image sensor disposed within said image sensor chamber,
- a heat dissipating device configured to transfer heat to an environment external to said image sensor chamber, and
- an image sensor cooling mechanism thermally coupled between said image sensor and said heat dissipating device;
- and
- image processing circuitry electrically coupled to said image sensor;
- wherein said video camera optical block is configured so that said image sensor receives an image transmitted by optical components of said optical block through said image sensor chamber window.
A method of cooling an image sensor that is disposed within an image sensor chamber, comprising:
- transferring heat from said image sensor to an environment external to said image sensor chamber using an image sensor cooling mechanism configured to transfer heat to said environment external to said image sensor chamber;
- and
- wherein said image sensor chamber is defined by one or more chamber enclosure components, at least one of said one or more chamber enclosure components having an image sensor window defined therein.
A method of assembling an image sensor enclosure apparatus, comprising:
- thermally coupling an image sensor and an image sensor cooling mechanism to a heat dissipating device of a second chamber enclosure component so that said image sensor cooling mechanism is thermally coupled between said image sensor and said heat dissipating device;
- and
- coupling a first chamber enclosure component to said second chamber enclosure component to form an image sensor chamber containing said image sensor, said second chamber enclosure component having an image sensor chamber window defined therein.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.