Wide-angle camera using achromatic doublet prism array and method of manufacturing the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9438779-B2
Application number	US-201514616936-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 9, 2015
Priority date	Feb 9, 2015
Publication date	Sep 6, 2016
Grant date	Sep 6, 2016

Abstract

A wide-angle camera and fabrication method thereof includes a sensor with a plurality of pixel sub-arrays and an array of optical elements on a first side of a substrate. Each of the optical elements is capable of forming an image from a field of view onto a different one of the pixel sub-arrays. The wide-angle camera also includes an array of achromatic doublet prisms on a second side of the substrate, where each of the achromatic doublet prisms is aligned to provide a viewing angle with a different one of the optical elements. The sensor captures a wide-angle field of view while having a compact format.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wide-angle camera, comprising:
a sensor having a plurality of pixel sub-arrays;
an array of optical elements mounted to a first side of a substrate, each of the optical elements being capable of forming an image of a field of view onto a different one of the pixel sub-arrays; and
an array of achromatic doublet prisms mounted to a second side of the substrate, each of the achromatic doublet prisms being aligned to provide a viewing angle with a different one of the optical elements;
wherein each achromatic doublet prism of the array of achromatic doublet prisms is aligned to provide a viewing angle with a different optical element of the array of optical elements, such that the sensor captures a wide-angle field of view while having a compact format.

2. The wide-angle camera of claim 1 , each of the achromatic doublet prisms comprising:
a first prism formed of a first material on the second side of the substrate; and
a second prism formed of a second material on a surface of the first prism, the first and second prisms defining a combination surface therebetween.

3. The wide-angle camera of claim 2 , the first prism having a first Abbe number that is lower than a second Abbe number of the second prism.

4. The wide-angle camera of claim 2 , the first material having a first refractive index that is higher than a second refractive index of the second material at a given wavelength.

5. The wide-angle camera of claim 1 , wherein geometry of each of the achromatic doublet prisms depends upon its position within the array of achromatic doublet prisms.

6. In a compact format wide-angle camera of the type having an array of optical elements and a corresponding array of single prisms cooperating to capture a wide field-of-view, wherein said array of optical elements is formed on a first side of a substrate and said array of single prisms is formed on a second side of said substrate, and wherein each of said single prisms is aligned with a different one of the optical elements and causes chromatic aberration, the improvement comprising:
implementing the array of single prisms as an array of achromatic doublet prisms formed using wafer-level fabrication onto the second side of the substrate such that each achromatic doublet prism is aligned with a different one of the optical elements, said array of achromatic doublet prisms and the array of optical elements cooperating to capture the wide field-of-view with reduced chromatic aberration.

7. The wide-angle camera of claim 2 , the second material being the same contiguous material between each of the achromatic doublet prisms.

8. The wide-angle camera of claim 2 , further comprising an area located in the center of the array of achromatic doublet prisms including only the second material.

9. The wide-angle camera of claim 1 , wherein each of the achromatic doublet prisms is directly adjacent to at least one other of the achromatic doublet prisms.

Assignees

• Omnivision Tech Inc

Inventors

• Yin Chuen-Yi
• Deng Jau-Jan

Classifications

• H04N23/45

  for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images · CPC title

• H04N5/2254 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N5/2258

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G02B13/0085

  employing wafer level optics · CPC title

• G02B5/045

  Prism arrays · CPC title