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US 9,871,980 B2Granted
Multi-zone imaging sensor and lens array
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsBenny Pesach, Erez Sali, Alexander Shpunt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An imaging module includes a matrix of detector elements formed on a single semiconductor substrate and configured to output electrical signals in response to optical radiation that is incident on the detector elements. A filter layer is disposed over the detector elements and includes multiple filter zones overlying different, respective, convex regions of the matrix and having different, respective passbands.
Claims18
An imaging module, comprising:
- a matrix of detector elements formed on a single semiconductor substrate and configured to output electrical signals in response to optical radiation that is incident on the detector elements;
- a filter layer, which is disposed over the detector elements and comprises multiple filter zones overlying different, respective, convex regions of the matrix and having different, respective passbands, including a first filter zone overlying a first region of the matrix and having an infrared passband and a second filter zone having at least one visible passband overlying a second region of the matrix;
- objective optics, which are configured to form respective images of a common field of view on all of the regions of the matrix;
- and
- a processor, which is configured to process the electrical signals output by the detector elements in the first region so as to produce a three-dimensional (3D) map of the field of view, and to register the 3D map with a two-dimensional (2D) image of the field of view that is generated by the detector elements in the second region.
2 more elements
An imaging module, comprising:
- a matrix of detector elements formed on a single semiconductor substrate and configured to output electrical signals in response to optical radiation that is incident on the detector elements;
- objective optics, which are configured to focus light onto the matrix of the detector elements so as to form respective images of a common field of view on different, respective regions of the matrix;
- multiple optical filters, which have different, respective passbands, including a first optical filter having an infrared passband and at least one second optical filter having a visible passband, and are positioned so that each filter filters the light that is focused onto a different, respective one of the regions, including a first region onto which the light filtered by the first optical filter is focused and a second region onto which the light filtered by the at least one second optical filter is focused;
- and
- a processor, which is configured to process the electrical signals output by the detector elements in the first region so as to produce a three-dimensional (3D) map of the field of view, and to register the 3D map with a two-dimensional (2D) image of the field of view that is generated by the detector elements in the second region.
2 more elements
A method for imaging, comprising:
- providing a matrix of detector elements formed on a single semiconductor substrate and configured to output electrical signals in response to optical radiation that is incident on the detector elements;
- overlaying a filter layer on the detector elements, the filter layer comprising multiple filter zones overlying different, respective, convex regions of the matrix and having different, respective passbands, including a first filter zone having an infrared passband overlying a first region of the matrix and a second filter zone having at least one visible passband overlying a second region of the matrix;
- aligning objective optics so as to form respective images of a common field of view on all of the regions of the matrix;
- and
- processing the image data from the first region in order to produce a three-dimensional (3D) map of the field of view, and registering the 3D map with a two-dimensional (2D) image generated by the second region.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.