Optical apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsIchiro Onuki, Goro Noto, Eriko Kawanami
Life of this patent
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Abstract
To provide an optical apparatus which controls an interface state to change a focal length by using an optical element having a container sealing first liquid that is conductive or polarized and second liquid that does not mutually mix with the first liquid with their interface in a predetermined form and electrodes provided in the container and of which optical characteristics change according to change of interface form due to application of voltage to the electrodes, and in particular an optical apparatus that controls a duty ratio of alternating current voltage applied to said electrodes for changing said interface form.
Claims6
An optical apparatus comprising:
- an optical element having a container sealing a first liquid that is conductive or polarized and a second liquid that does not mutually mix with the first liquid, with their interface being in a predetermined form, and electrodes provided in the container, wherein optical characteristics of said optical element change based on a change of the interface form due to application of voltage to the electrodes;
- a power supply circuit which applies a predetermined alternating current voltage to said electrodes in order to change the interface form;
- and
- an applied voltage controlling circuit which controls the alternating current voltage to be applied, said applied voltage controlling circuit being configured to control a duty ratio of the alternating current voltage and change the interface form by controlling the duty ratio.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.