Large-aperture compact scanning tele cameras

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12216259-B2
Application number	US-202218718461-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 8, 2022
Priority date	Dec 14, 2021
Publication date	Feb 4, 2025
Grant date	Feb 4, 2025

Abstract

Scanning Tele cameras (STCs) based on two optical path folding element (OPFE) field-of-view scanning and mobile devices including such STCs. A STC may comprise a first OPFE (O-OPFE) for folding a first optical path OP 1 to a second optical path OP 2 , an O-OPFE actuator, a second OPFE (I-OPFE) for folding OP 2 to a third optical path OP 3 , an I-OPFE actuator, a lens, a lens actuator and an image sensor, wherein the STC has a STC native field-of-view (n-FOV T ), wherein the O-OPFE actuator is configured to rotate the O-OPFE around a first axis and the I-OPFE actuator rotates the I-OPFE around a second axis for scanning a scene with the n-FOV T , wherein the lens actuator is configured to move the lens for focusing along a third axis, and wherein the first axis is perpendicular to the second axis and parallel to the third axis.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A scanning Tele camera (STC), comprising:
an optical path folding element (OPFE) for folding a first optical path OP 1 to a second optical path OP 2 , wherein the OPFE has an OPFE height H O measured along OP 1 , an OPFE length L O measured along an axis parallel to OP 2 , an OPFE light entering surface and an OPFE light exiting surface;
an OPFE actuator;
a lens having a lens optical axis parallel to OP 2 , an effective focal length EFL, a f number f/#, a maximum lens aperture height H A measured along OP 1 , and a maximum lens aperture width WA measured along an axis perpendicular to both OP 1 and OP 2 ; and

an image sensor having an image sensor diagonal SD and an image sensor height H Sensor measured along OP 1 ,
wherein the STC has a STC native field-of-view n-FOV T , wherein the OPFE actuator is configured to rotate the OPFE around a first rotation axis perpendicular to both OP 1 and OP 2 and around a second rotation axis parallel to OP 1 for scanning a scene with the n-FOV T , wherein the first rotation axis is located at a distance Δ 1 from the light exiting surface of the OPFE, and wherein Δ 1 /L O <0.25.

2. The STC of claim 1 , wherein Δ 1 /L O <0.2.

3. The STC of claim 1 , wherein Δ 1 /L O <0.1.

4. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the OPFE has an OPFE center with respect to OP 1 , wherein the first rotation axis is located at a distance Δ C from the OPFE center along OP 1 , and wherein a ratio of Δ C and H O fulfils Δ C /H O >0.015.

5. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the OPFE has an OPFE center with respect to OP 1 , wherein the first rotation axis is located at a distance Δ C from the OPFE center along OP 1 , and wherein a ratio of Δ C and H O fulfils Δ C /H O >0.02.

6. The STC of claim 1 , included in a camera module, wherein the camera module is divided into a module region having a module region height H M and a shoulder region having a shoulder region height H S <H M , all heights being measured along OP 1 , and wherein H S <H A +3 mm.

7. The STC of claim 6 , wherein H A /H S >0.7.

8. The STC of claim 6 , wherein DA/H S >0.8.

9. The STC of claim 6 , wherein the OPFE is included in the module region and wherein the lens and the image sensor are included in the shoulder region.

10. The STC of claim 6 , wherein the lens is divided into a first lens group (G 1 ) and a second lens group (G 2 ), wherein the OPFE and G 1 are included in the module region and G 2 and the image sensor are included in the shoulder region.

11. The STC of claim 6 , included in a mobile device, wherein the mobile device has a regular region with a regular thickness T and a bump region with a bump thickness T+B, wherein the shoulder region is included in the mobile device regular region and wherein the module region is included in the mobile device bump region.

12. The STC of claim 11 , wherein the mobile device includes a Wide camera having a Wide camera image sensor and a Wide camera field-of-view (FOV W ).

13. The STC of claim 12 , wherein the scanning provides an effective Tele scanning FOV s-FOV T , wherein FOV W is in the range of 70-90 degrees, and wherein s-FOV T covers a 16:9 segment of FOV W .

14. The STC of claim 1 , wherein H O <H A +2 mm.

15. The STC of claim 1 , wherein H O <H A +1 mm.

16. The STC of claim 1 , wherein SD/EFL>0.4 mm.

17. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the STC uses a parallel STC sensor configuration.

18. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the STC uses an anti-parallel STC sensor configuration.

19. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the scanning provides an effective Tele scanning FOV s-FOV T , wherein the s-FOV T has a longer horizontal side and a shorter vertical side, and wherein a horizontal side H-FOV T of s-FOV T is greater than 40 degrees.

20. The STC of claim 19 , wherein the OPFE is a prism, wherein the prism has a fast scanning axis and a slow scanning axis, wherein the image sensor is oriented such that the prism's fast scanning axis is aligned with the horizontal side H-FOV T of s-FOV T .

21. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the scanning provides an effective Tele scanning FOV s-FOV T , wherein the s-FOV has a longer horizontal side and a shorter vertical side, and wherein a vertical side V-FOV T of s-FOV T >20 degrees.

22. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the rotation of the OPFE along the first rotation axis is by more than ±5 degrees around a zero scan position.

23. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the rotation of the OPFE along the second rotation axis is by more than ±15 degrees around a zero scan position.

24. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the OPFE is a prism.

25. The STC of claim 1 , wherein EFL=8-10 mm.

26. The STC of claim 1 , wherein EFL=10-25 mm.

27. The STC of claim 1 , wherein EFL=25-50 mm.

28. The STC of claim 1 , wherein f/#<3.5.

29. The STC of claim 1 , wherein f/#<3.

30. The STC of claim 1 , wherein f/#<2.5.

31. The STC of claim 1 , wherein a distance between the OPFE and the lens is ΔL O , and wherein ΔL O /TTL<0.25.

32. The STC of claim 1 , wherein H O /L O <0.9.

33. The STC of claim 1 , wherein W O /H O >1.75.

34. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the lens is a cut lens and the cut is performed along an axis parallel to OP 2 .

35. The STC of claim 34 , wherein the cut lens is cut by X %, wherein the cutting by X % will reduce MH M and MH S by 0.5·X %-X %.

36. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the OPFE is a cut OPFE and the cut is performed along an axis parallel to OP 2 .

37. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the lens elements in the lens have an average lens thickness (ALT), wherein a thickness of the first lens element L 1 is T 1 , and wherein T 1 /ALT>1.5.

38. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the focal length of the first lens element is f 1 , and wherein f 1 /EFL<0.75.

39. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the lens is divided into a first lens group (G 1 ) and a second lens group (G 2 ), wherein a ratio of a height HG of G 1 and a height H G2 of G 2 fulfills H G1 /H G2 >1.15.

40. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the lens is divided into a first lens group (G 1 ) and a second lens group (G 2 ), wherein a ratio of a height Hoi of G 1 and a height H G2 of G 2 fulfills H G1 /H G2 >1.3.

41. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the first lens element L 1 is made of glass.

42. The STC of claim 1 , wherein the OPFE is a prism, and wherein the prism includes a stray light prevention mechanism.

43. The STC of claim 42 , wherein the stray light prevention mechanism includes two stray light masks located at the OPFE light entering surface and two stray light masks located at the light exiting surface.

44. A mobile device comprising the STC of claim 1 , wherein the mobile device further comprises an application processor (AP).

45. The mobile device of claim 44 , wherein the mobile device further comprises a Wide camera, wherein the AP is configured to use image data from the Wide camera for autonomous scanning of a scene with the STC's n-FOV T .

46. The mobile device of claim 44 , wherein the AP is configured to scan a scene with the STC's n-FOV T according to a user inp

Assignees

• Corephotonics Ltd

Inventors

• Goldenberg Ephraim
• Kowal Yiftah
• Shabtay Gal
• Boral Itamar
• Shemesh Ziv

Classifications

• G03B17/17 Primary

  with reflectors arranged in beam forming the photographic image, e.g. for reducing dimensions of camera · CPC title

• G03B3/06

  using movable reflectors to alter length of light path · CPC title

• H04N23/55

  Optical parts specially adapted for electronic image sensors; Mounting thereof · CPC title

• G02B26/108 Primary

  having one or more prisms as scanning elements · CPC title

• G02B26/10 Primary

  Scanning systems · CPC title