Catadioptric one-to-one telecentric image combining system
AssigneeHughes Electronics Corporation
InventorChungte W. Chen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A catadioptric one-to-one optical relay system which is telecentric in both object and image space. The system includes three modules, which include a spherical primary mirror, a spherical secondary mirror with a zero power doublet for axial color correction, and an X-prism for spectral division. The chromatic aberration generated by the X-prism is compensated by the zero power doublet corrector. Because the system is telecentric in both object and image space, the coatings associated with the X-prism are simplified. The system can be used in telescopes, optical systems with sensor protection, and color CCD assemblies.
Claims22
A catadioptric one-to-one optical relay system, comprising:
- a spherical concave primary mirror;
- a convex secondary mirror;
- a zero power doublet for axial color correction;
- and
- an optical means for spectral division;
- wherein said primary mirror, said secondary mirror, said doublet and said spectral division means are arranged such that light from an object is first collimated by the primary mirror and passes through the doublet to reflect from the secondary mirror, the reflected light passing through the doublet again and directed onto the primary mirror again, the primary mirror refocusing the light to form a relayed image, the optical division means located in front of the relayed image to divide the relayed image into first, second and third spectral band images.
A telescope having a one-to-one relay system, comprising:
- a plurality of telescope mirrors arranged to focus a distant object at an intermediate image plane;
- a catadioptric one-to-one relay system for further relaying the intermediate plane image and separating the image into a plurality of spectral component images, the relay system including:
- a spherical concave primary mirror;
- a convex secondary mirror with a zero power doublet for axial color correction coupled to the secondary mirror;
- optical means for spectral division;
- wherein the intermediate image light is first collimated by the primary mirror and passes through the doublet to reflect from the secondary mirror, the reflected image light passing through the doublet again and directed onto the primary mirror again, the primary mirror refocusing the light to form a relayed image, the spectral division means located in front of the relayed image to divide the relayed image into first, second and third spectral band images;
- and
- a detector assembly comprising first, second and third detector arrays responsive respectively to said first, second and third spectral band images.
A self-corrected color charge-coupled-device (CCD) module, comprising:
- a plurality of CCD chips butted together with a prism assembly to form a color CCD array;
- and
- a catadioptric one-to-one optical relay system, comprising:
- a spherical concave primary mirror;
- a convex secondary mirror;
- and
- a zero power doublet for axial color correction to correct for chromatic aberration introduced by said prism assembly;
- wherein said primary mirror, said secondary mirror and said doublet are arranged such that light from an object is first collimated by the primary mirror and passes through the doublet to reflect from the secondary mirror, the reflected light passing through the doublet again and directed onto the primary mirror again, the primary mirror refocusing the light to form a relayed image, the prism assembly located in front of the relayed image to divide the relayed image into a plurality of spectral band images.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.