Optical waveguides – Optical fiber bundle – Imaging
Reexamination Certificate
2008-05-20
2008-05-20
Kim, Ellen (Department: 2874)
Optical waveguides
Optical fiber bundle
Imaging
C385S147000
Reexamination Certificate
active
07376314
ABSTRACT:
A multiple aperture array, wide angle imaging system incorporates compound refractive optics modeled after the eyes of insects. The system channels light through the apertures of a convex spatial filter and a pair of lenslet arrays hot press molded on a positive meniscus form. The lenslets act as afocal Keplerian telescopes to superpose light from hundreds of adjacent channels to a common point on the convex surface of a fiber optic imaging taper. The superposed light from all the channels form a curved, high intensity image that is transformed by the taper into a flat format for readout by a mosaic detector array. The image is upright and distortion free with an infinite depth of field. Ghost images are blocked by a honeycomb louver baffle positioned between the lenslets and the imaging taper. The system is conformable to the geometry of any convex mounting surface, whether spherical, aspherical, or cylindrical.
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Kim Ellen
Spectral Imaging Laboratory
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