Folded imager
AssigneeCapsovision Inc
InventorsGordon WILSON, Mark WANG
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An optical imaging system which produces large field of view with a folded image.
Claims5
An optical imaging system having a first lens group with negative power, prism, second lens group of positive power wherein the first surface of the prism is concave, the second surface of the prism is a mirror that folds the optical axis;
- a. HFOV>160 deg and VFOV>80 deg.;
- b. conjugate ratio is 5.47. ;
- c. ratio of entire lens focal length to first lens focal length=−0.309.
A system capsule with diameter less than 13 mm in which an outer circumference is imaged in its entirety by a plurality of cameras with overlapping fields of view sharing a common image plane.
A panoramic imager comprising a plurality of objectives sharing a common image plane with a first lens group with negative power, prism, second lens group of positive power, wherein the second surface of the prism is a mirror that folds the optical axis.
- a. wherein the first surface of the prism is concave.
- b. The prisms for all objectives form a monolithic part.
- c. The lenses after the fold are placed in bores in a common lens barrel structure.
- d. The second surface of each prism has a reflective coating.
- e. other surfaces of the prism structure are not reflective coated.
- f. a cover that, together with barrel, optically isolates the 4 cameras.
- g. An opaque material, such as black silicone, that fills the gaps between prism, cover, and barrel. TIR is suppressed at prism side surfaces.
- h. An additional opaque structure that occupies space behind prisms (in the middle). A clear material such as silicone or epoxy may fill the gaps such that TIR is suppressed.
- i. An image sensor that sits under the barrel such that the barrel touches the sensor cover glass.
- j. legs that extend down from the barrel and straddle the sensor cover glass so that the lateral alignment of optics to sensor is achieved, wherein the sensor may have a plurality of pixel containing regions, one for each camera objective, with other circuitry separating them on a single semiconductor substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.