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Simultaneous spectral imaging system including commonly filtered optical paths defined by focusing elements exhibiting disparate f-numbers

  • US 7,888,624 B1
  • Filed: 11/26/2007
  • Issued: 02/15/2011
  • Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2006
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A multi-image detector assembly for detecting a plurality of correlated images of a single scene over a plurality of disparate electromagnetic wavelength sets, the detector assembly comprising:

  • an array of detector elements, the array comprising a plurality of detector-array sections, each detector-array section comprising at least two detector-array subsections dedicated to the detection of a common wavelength set associated with that detector-array section;

    a plurality of optical focusing elements, each focusing element aligned for focusing upon a corresponding one of the plurality of detector-array sub-sections an image of the scene correlating to the images of the scene focused upon other detector-array sub-sections by the other focusing elements of the plurality of focusing elements, each focusing element and its corresponding detector-array sub-section defining an optical path; and

    a plurality of optical filtering elements, each filtering element being configured to pass a selected wavelength set;

    wherein (i) each detector-array section has associated with it at least two optical paths, (ii) each optical filtering element is disposed within at least two optical paths associated with a common detector-array section, and (iii) when the detector assembly is in an operative mode, image detection occurs continuously and simultaneously over plural disparate detector-array sections in order to provide a correlated set of images over plural wavelength sets.

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