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By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Electronics Newsweekly -- LARGAN PRECISION CO., LTD. (Taichung, TW) has been issued patent number 9316819, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by VerticalNews editors.
The patent's inventors are Hsu, Po-Lun (Taichung, TW); Chen, Wei-Yu (Taichung, TW); Hsueh, Chun-Che (Taichung, TW).
This patent was filed on November 15, 2012 and was published online on April 19, 2016.
From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: "The present invention relates to an imaging lens system, and more particularly, to an imaging lens system used in electronic products and infrared photography.
"The demand for compact imaging lens assembly grows in recent years with the increasing popularity of portable electronic products with photographing function. The sensor of a general photographing camera is none other than CCD (Charge Coupled Device) or CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensor. Furthermore, as the advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology has allowed the pixel size of the sensors to be reduced, and the current electronic products are leaning toward a trend of being more compact, there is an increasing demand for high quality imaging lens.
"On the other hand, the emerging motion capture technology applied in smart TV or motion sensing games also expands the application of compact imaging lens. The feature of these applications is by an infrared camera directly capturing the user's motion, the user takes control of the device intuitively; the experience of the motion sensing operation is elevated. Therefore, the demand for compact imaging lens operated in the infrared wavelength range has increased; what is more, lenses with wide viewing angle are even more welcome because they can extend the capturing range of the camera.
"In view of this, an imaging lens structure applied in slim and portable electronic devices is needed; on one hand, imaging lenses with this structure can be optimized for the requirement of ordinary photography (wide viewing angle, large aperture, image quality, etc.), on the other hand, lenses with this structure can be optimized for motion capture in the infrared wavelength range."
Supplementing the background information on this patent, VerticalNews reporters also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent: "The present invention provides an imaging lens system, in order from an object side to an image side comprising: a first lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface at a paraxial region and a convex image-side surface at the paraxial region; a plastic second lens element with positive refractive power having a concave object-side surface at the paraxial region, a convex image-side surface at the paraxial region, and both of the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric; and a plastic third lens element with negative refractive power having a concave object-side surface at the paraxial region, a concave at the paraxial region and convex at a peripheral region image-side surface, and both of the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric; wherein the lens elements of the imaging lens system with refractive power are the first lens element, the second lens element, and the third lens element, a curvature radius of the object-side surface of the first lens element is R1, a curvature radius of the image-side surface of the first lens element is R2, a focal length of the first lens element is f1, a focal length of the second lens element is f2, and they satisfy the following relations: -0.5<(R1+R2)/(R1-R2)<1.0; and 1.65<f1/f2<5.0.
"In another aspect, the present invention provides an imaging lens system, in order from an object side to an image side comprising: a first lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface at a paraxial region and a convex image-side surface at the paraxial region; a plastic second lens element with positive refractive power having a concave object-side surface at the paraxial region, a convex image-side surface at the paraxial region, and both of the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric; and a plastic third lens element with negative refractive power having a concave object-side surface at the paraxial region, a concave at the paraxial region and convex at a peripheral region image-side surface, and both of the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric; wherein the lens elements of the imaging lens system with refractive power are the first lens element, the second lens element, and the third lens element, a c urvature radius of the object-side surface of the first lens element is R1, a curvature radius of the image-side surface of the first lens element is R2, a curvature radius of the object-side surface of the third lens element is R5, a focal length of the imaging lens system is f, and they satisfy the following relations: -0.5<(R1+R2)/(R1-R2)<1.0; and -1.33<R5/f<-0.55.
"In still another aspect, the present invention provides an imaging lens system, in order from an object side to an image side comprising: a first lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface at a paraxial region and a convex image-side surface at the paraxial region; a plastic second lens element with positive refractive power having a concave object-side surface at the paraxial region, a convex image-side surface at the paraxial region, and both of the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric; and a plastic third lens element with negative refractive power having a concave at the paraxial region and convex at a peripheral region image-side surface, and both of the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric; wherein the lens elements of the imaging lens system with refractive power are the first lens element, the second lens element, and the third lens element, the imaging lens system is used for optical wavelen gths ranging from 780 nm to 950 nm, a curvature radius of the object-side surface of the first lens element is R1, a curvature radius of the image-side surface of the first lens element is R2, and they satisfy the following relation: -0.5<(R1+R2)/(R1-R2)<1.0.
"In the aforementioned imaging lens system, the first lens element has positive refractive power to effectively distribute the refractive power of the second lens and helps to reduce the sensitivity of the imaging lens system. The second lens element has positive refractive power and provides the main refractive power of the system to control the total track length of the lens system effectively and avoid too large a volume of the lens system. The third lens element has negative refractive power and forms a positive-negative telephoto structure with the second lens element and can reduce the total track length of the imaging lens system effectively. With the aforementioned configuration, the present invention can reduce the total track length of the imaging lens system, increase the viewing angle of the lens system effectively, and facilitate the compact and wide-angle applications."
For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Hsu, Po-Lun; Chen, Wei-Yu; Hsueh, Chun-Che. Imaging Lens System. U.S. Patent Number 9316819, filed November 15, 2012, and published online on April 19, 2016. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=9316819.PN.&OS=PN/9316819RS=PN/9316819
Keywords for this news article include: Technology, Electronics, Semiconductor, LARGAN PRECISION CO. LTD..
Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world. Copyright 2016, NewsRx LLC
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The nanostructured materials known as Type-II indium arsenide/gallium antimonide/aluminum antimonide (InAs/GaSb/AlSb) superlattices have been around since the 1970s and have served in infrared detection applications since the late 1980s. Since then, Type-II Sb-based superlattice materials have evolved drastically with many variants suited for different applications.
Now researchers at Northwestern University, led by Manijeh Razeghi, have developed a new superlattice design, called M-structure superlattice. It can be used to make devices that operate as a shortwave/mid-wave/long-wave infrared photodetector. Shortwave infrared wave (SWIR) bands make it possible to detect reflected light. Mid-wave detection picks up hot plumes and long-wave infrared detects cooler objects.
The researchers claim that a device designed around this new material can detect any of these infrared wavebands by simply adjusting the applied bias voltage. In terms of actual applications, the researchers claim this device could make possible infrared color televisions and three-color infrared imaging.
In research described in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, the researchers produced this superlattice by alternating the InAs, GaSb, and AlSb layers (with thicknesses of a few angstroms to a few nanometers) over several periods. The result is a one-dimensional periodic structure like that of the periodic atomic chain in naturally occurring crystals.
"The beauty of Type-II superlattice is the gap engineering capability which allows us to artificially manipulate and create novel 'materials' like the way natural semiconductors are created," said Razeghi in an e-mail interview with IEEE Spectrum.
There are currently only a few material systems that are suitable for multi-spectral detection, according to Razeghi. The current state-of-the-art, mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) and quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs), are commercially available for infrared dual-band detection. However, mercury cadmium telluride technology is expensive and hard to make, while quantum well detectors suffer from low quantum efficiency and require low operating temperatures.
"In that context, Type-II InAs/GaSb/AlSb superlattices have proved to be an excellent alternative," says Razeghi. "Controlling the electronic structure by managing the layer thicknesses as they are grown on GaSb substrate [yields] superlattices with the capability of tuning from SWIR to very-long wavelength infrared (VLWIR), covering the whole infrared spectrum."
Despite the immense promise of the M-structure superlattices, this developing new material system has been the focus of considerably less development than II-VI based mercury cadmium telluride photodetectors, according to Razeghi.
"The current state-of-the-art in infrared detection technology is still based on HgCdTe, and relatively little effort has been expended developing dual- and triple-band T2SL based focal plane arrays (FPAs)," Razeghi told Spectrum. "There is a unique opportunity to mature this material system and realize a new generation of dual- and triple-band FPA sensors."
However, Razeghi concedes that, responsivity, which dictates how sensitive a photodetector is, and the dark current, which is related to the noise, must be further improved. This means the optimization of many parameters, including device design, material growth, and all of the processing steps, must result in high reproducibility and high yield.
"We need to reduce the bias dependency of the long-wavelength channel to a reasonable range so that it could be compatible with the currently available readout integrated circuit," says Razeghi.
The next step in the research, she says, will be to fabricate a three-color infrared camera. She added: "Our long term goal is to improve both electrical and optical performance of the detectors in order to make cheap high-performance infrared cameras for different applications."
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The Raspberry Pi is a ideal little computer which in the hands of a developer can prove to be very capable. A conversation was struck up with Sony's image sensor division and thus, Raspberry Pi now has an 8 megapixel camera accessory from the company.
The Raspberry Pi itself has been refreshed several times since it first launched in 2012, but the 5-megapixel camera module has remained unchanged since it was introduced three years ago.
Upton explained that the camera stood still while the Foundation worked through an inventory and updated the main hardware to version 3, but has now made a 3MP leap forward. The NoIR camera v2 has a No InfraRed (NoIR) filter on the lens making it suitable for infrared photography or for taking pictures in lowlight environments.
The Raspberry Pi Camera v2 and Raspberry Pi NoIR Camera v2 are available at the same $25 price through element14. As with the old model, these can be used in a variety of projects, including telescopes, kites with aerial views, science lessons, hyperspectral imaging hacks, and the list goes on.
"As many of you know, the OmniVision OV5647 sensor used in both boards was end-of-lifed at the end of 2014. Our partners both bought up large stockpiles, but these are now nearly completely depleted, so we needed to do something new", explained Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton. This led the Raspberry Pi Foundation to source a new sensor from Sony which allowed for the upgrade.
This particular camera sensor was chosen for the impressive image quality that it provides as well as the exceptional colour fidelity for a sensor its size and the low-light performance. Despite the upgrade, the camera still costs just $25.
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Available to order from both distributors the camera board can be connected to any Raspberry Pi board or the Raspberry Pi Compute Module.
The NoIR camera v2 has a No InfraRed (NoIR) filter on the lens which makes it the flawless option for infrared photography and taking pictures in lowlight environments.
The next generation module can take photos up to a 3,280 x 2,464 resolution, and can shoot 1080p video at 30fps, 720p at 60fps and 480p video at 90fps for slow motion.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has today announced the arrival and availability of their new 8 megapixel Raspberry Pi camera which is priced at $25 and available from the Foundation's partners in the form of RS Components and Element14. As with the old model, these can be used in a variety of projects, including telescopes, kites with aerial views, science lessons, hyperspectral imaging hacks, and the list goes on.
Eben Upton, the Raspberry Pi founder on Monday said in a blog post that, the Omn iVision OV5647 sensor was end-of-lifed at the end of 2014 and the large stockpile it had bought was completely depleted.
The Raspberry Pi itself has been refreshed several times since it first launched in 2012, but the 5-megapixel camera module has remained unchanged since it was introduced three years ago. "In our testing, IMX219 has proven to be a fantastic choice".
As before, you can purchase either a normal "visible light" version of the camera, or an infrared model, and whichever you plump for it will run you to $25 (or £19 in the UK) - the same price the previous boards were available for.
The most significant problem with this change in supplier was how the module interacted with Broadcom's VideoCore low-power multimedia processor architecture, which convers raw RGB format images and corrects them for deficiencies such as noise, defective pixels and distortion.
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Infrared rays are similar to other electromagnetic waves, and come in three variants depending on its wavelength, namely short, middle and long range. Due to manufacturing restrictions, till now, photo-detectors were unable to process all the three ranges together. Recently, team leader Manijeh Razeghi with her group has fabricated a new method to optimally achieve a three-colour (shortwave-midwave-longwave) infrared photo-detector.
The group has confirmed that only by varying the bias voltage, the device could precisely detect varying wave bands. The research objective of making the device will open up potential applications in the sector of infrared color televisions and three-colour infrared imaging. The system has been realized without taking the help of extra terminal contacts. The core of the photo-detector is made up of indium-arsenide/gallium-antimonide/aluminum-antimonide type-2 super lattice structure.
Talking about its main operation, the voltage dependent device is sensitive to the varying voltage. According to the change, the device starts to show desired characteristics of three separate colors mapped to the bandgap of three absorbers. The complete device is an upgradation of the previous models, namely single-colour, short-wavelength infrared photodetector and two-colour, shortwave-midwave infrared photodetectors where all three colours were detected with prominent cut-off wavelengths and high cut off frequencies for every channel.Professor Razeghi explained that the new approach will rejuvenate the infrared imaging technology and might open up new branches, depending on the newly emerging methods. The research was funded and supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Army Research Laboratory and the Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA. The complete research report was published in the "Nature Scientific Reports" journal.
Source: Northwestern University
