IMAGE PICKUP

• US 20090316025A1
• Filed: 06/17/2009
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: HIRAI, Hideaki
• Granted Patent: US 8,379,084 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/273
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1103 Detecting eye twinkling
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/18 for vehicle drivers or machine operators
• CPC Class Codes: B82Y 20/00 Nanooptics, e.g. quantum optics or photonic crystals
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 1/005 made of photonic crystals or photonic band gap materials photonic band-gap structures or photonic lattices in integrated optics G02B6/1225; photonic band-gap structures or photonic lattices in optical fibres G02B6/02295
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 3/0018 Reflow, i.e. characterized by the step of melting microstructures to form curved surfaces, e.g. manufacturing of moulds and surfaces for transfer etching
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/20 Filters polarising elements G02B5/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/54 Mounting of pick-up tubes, electronic image sensors, deviation or focusing coils
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/56 provided with illuminating means
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/33 Transforming infrared radiation cameras or camera modules for generating image signals from infrared radiation H04N23/20; circuitry of SSIS for transforming infrared radiation into image signals H04N25/20

Abstract

An image pickup including a light emission portion that irradiates an object with near infrared; and an image pickup portion that receives a reflection light image of the object by the near infrared. The image pickup portion includes a lens array containing a substrate on which multiple lenses to respectively receive the reflection light image of the object by the near infrared are arranged; a light shield spacer that shields beams of light that have passed through the lens array from each other; a color filter separated into areas according to beams of light that pass through the light shield spacer, each of which transmits only particular beams of near infrared depending on the wavelengths thereof; and an image pickup element that simultaneously obtains multiple images of the object which are formed of each of the particular beams of near infrared having independent wavelengths that have passed through each of the areas of the color filter.

Claims

1. An image pickup comprising:

a light emission portion configured to irradiate an object with near infrared; and

an image pickup portion configured to receive a reflection light image of the object by the near infrared, the image pickup portion comprising;

a lens array comprising a substrate on which multiple lenses to respectively receive the reflection light image of the object by the near infrared are arranged;

a light shield spacer configured to shield beams of light that have passed through the lens array from each other;

a color filter separated into areas according to beams of light that pass through the light shield spacer, each of the areas being configured to transmit only particular beams of near infrared depending on wavelengths thereof; and

an image pickup element configured to simultaneously obtain multiple images of the object which are formed of each of the particular beams of near infrared having independent wavelengths that have passed through each of the areas of the color filter.

2. The image pickup according to claim 1, wherein the color filter is a laminate structure in which, in an XYZ orthogonal coordinate system, at least two kinds of transparent materials are alternately arranged in the Z direction on a substrate arranged in parallel with the XY plane, each layer of the laminate structure has one dimensional periodic concavo-convex form repeated in one direction in the XY plane determined depending on each of the areas and the beams of light that pass through the light shield spacer enters into the XY plane.

3. The image pickup according to claim 1, wherein the color filter has a groove or lattice structure arranged on a substrate with a regular cycle.

4. The image pickup according to claim 1, wherein the image pickup element is installed on an image pickup element holder, a spacer having a rectangle frame is provided on the image pickup element holder, the color filter is installed on the spacer, and the image pickup element is sealed by the spacer, the color filter, and the image pickup element holder.