Systems and methods for controlling aliasing in images captured by an array camera for use in super resolution processing using pixel apertures

An imager array, comprising:

• a plurality of focal planes, where each focal plane comprises a two dimensional arrangement of pixels having at least two pixels in each dimension and each focal plane is contained within a region of the imager array that does not contain pixels from another focal plane;
• control circuitry configured to control the capture of image information by the pixels within the focal planes;
• and
• sampling circuitry configured to convert pixel outputs into digital pixel data;
• wherein each of the pixels in the plurality of focal planes comprises a pixel stack including a microlens and an active area, where light incident on the surface of the microlens is focused onto the active area by the microlens and the active area samples the incident light to capture image information;
• wherein the pixel stack of each pixel defines a pixel area and the microlens forms a pixel aperture, wherein the light incident on the pixel stack passes through the pixel aperture and is incident on the pixel area, where the size of the pixel aperture is smaller than the pixel area so that the sampling frequency of the pixels introduces aliasing into the images captured by each focal plane;
• wherein gaps exist between adjacent microlenses in the pixel stacks of adjacent pixels in a focal plane;
• wherein the pixel stack further comprises light blocking material located to prevent light from entering the pixel stacks through the gaps between the microlenses;
• wherein the amount of aliasing in images captured by a focal plane is greater than the amount of aliasing that would be present were the microlens in each pixel stack to occupy the entire pixel area defined by the pixel stack;
• and
• wherein the aliasing present in the images captured by each focal plane is different so that high frequencies folded back into the lower frequencies of the captured images can be recovered using super resolution processing, wherein the super resolution processing processes the images captured by each focal plane to obtain a synthesized high resolution (HR) image with an increased overall resolution.

An array camera module, comprising:

• an imager array configured to capture light field image data, comprising:
• a plurality of focal planes, where each focal plane comprises a two dimensional arrangement of pixels having at least two pixels in each dimension and each focal plane is contained within a region of the imager array that does not contain pixels from another focal plane;
• control circuitry configured to control the capture of image information by the pixels within the focal planes;
• and
• sampling circuitry configured to convert pixel outputs into digital pixel data;
• wherein each of the pixels in the plurality of focal planes comprise a pixel stack including a microlens and an active area, where light incident on the surface of the microlens is focused onto the active area by the microlens and the active area samples the incident light to capture image information;
• wherein the pixel stack of each pixel defines a pixel area and includes a pixel aperture, wherein the light incident on the pixel stack passes through the pixel aperture and is incident on the pixel area, where the size of the pixel apertures is smaller than the pixel area so that the sampling frequency of the pixels introduces aliasing into the images captured by each focal plane;
• and
• an optic array of lens stacks,
• wherein the aliasing present in the images captured by each focal plane is different so that high frequencies folded back into the lower frequencies of the captured images can be recovered using super resolution processing, wherein the super resolution processing processes the images captured by each focal plane to obtain a synthesized high resolution (HR) image with an increased overall resolution.