Reflectance sensor for integral illuminant-weighted CIE color matching filters
AssigneeDatacolor Holding AG
InventorsColman Shannon, David Slocum, Michael Vrhel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A tristimulus colorimeter for measuring reflective or transmissive materials is provided. The colorimeter measures a sample under a calibrated light source, receives inputs to detectors, and determines CIE tristimulus values of the same sample as they would occur under a reference light source. The colorimeter includes a calibrated light source and a single silicon chip that includes three or more detectors. Each detector is permanently coated by a different mix of dyes or other colorants that form a wavelength-selective filter. A single silicon chip embodies all the detectors and electronics, with each detector coated over by deposited filter layers.
Claims27
A solid-state color-measuring device, comprising:
- at least one light source comprising a calorimeter illuminant for illuminating a sample;
- a plurality of light detectors;
- and
- a plurality of filters that are permanently deposited onto the solid-state color-measuring device, the filters being included in a plurality of layers such that light reflected off the sample passes through the layers and causes the light detectors to cause the solid-state color-measuring device to produce an output having a plurality of colorimeter-illuminant-weighted spectral responses each approximating a reference-illuminant-weighted CIE-like color-matching function.
A calorimeter, comprising:
- at least one light source comprising a colorimeter illuminant for illuminating a sample;
- a semiconductor substrate having at least three photodetectors;
- at least three filters permanently deposited on the at least three photodetectors, each filter is included in a set of layers having at least a single layer and at least one double layer;
- and
- a plurality of channels including the photodetectors and filters so that particular linear combinations of a plurality of colorimeter-illuminant-weighted spectral responses of the channels each approximate a reference-illuminant-weighted CIE-like color-matching function.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.