Linear Sensor Arrays with Submicron Y-Axis Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional sensor arrays with fixed rows of photosensors face challenges in achieving precise and repeatable alignment, limiting their accuracy and precision in forming multi-row sensor arrays, which hampers image scanning speed and noise reduction capabilities.
Innovation Solution
The development of linear sensor arrays with submicron y-axis alignment between arrays, allowing for precision alignment of multiple sensor arrays on a mounting substrate, enabling increased image scanning speed, noise reduction through redundant sampling, and enhanced color scanning capabilities up to true four-color scanning at 1,200 dpi and eight-color image scanning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If conventional slicing and placement operations are used to position adjacent sensor arrays, then sensor arrays can be assembled, but alignment accuracy and precision are limited and the process is time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple sensor arrays are integrated onto a single substrate during fabrication, merging what would otherwise be separate assembly operations into one unified structure. This eliminates the need for sequential slicing and placement of individual arrays, achieving both high alignment accuracy through monolithic fabrication and reduced assembly time through simultaneous integration.
Solution Approach 2:
Sensor arrays are pre-positioned and aligned during the substrate fabrication process itself, rather than being positioned afterward through separate placement operations. The substrate is designed with predetermined array locations and alignment features built in during manufacturing, ensuring precise alignment before final assembly.
2Adaptability or versatility
If more than four rows of photosensors are formed, then sensing capability is enhanced, but positioning and bonding complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple sensor arrays with more than four rows each are combined onto a single substrate during the fabrication process, allowing complex multi-row configurations to be achieved through integrated manufacturing rather than sequential assembly. This merging approach maintains sensing capability while reducing the operational complexity of positioning and bonding.
Solution Approach 2:
The substrate is designed as a unified structure that segments and organizes multiple sensor arrays in predetermined positions, allowing complex multi-row configurations to be managed through systematic substrate design rather than complex assembly procedures. Each array is positioned according to pre-planned locations on the substrate.
3Measurement precision
If sensor arrays are closely positioned to increase sampling density, then image scanning resolution is improved, but alignment precision requirements become more difficult to achieve
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple sensor arrays are fabricated as integrated components on a single substrate, allowing close positioning for high sampling density while maintaining alignment precision through unified manufacturing processes. The merging of arrays during fabrication ensures that even at close spacing, alignment is determined by the substrate fabrication precision rather than by subsequent placement operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The fabrication parameters of the substrate are optimized to achieve both close array spacing and high alignment precision simultaneously. By controlling substrate manufacturing parameters such as material properties, fabrication temperature, and processing conditions, the system achieves the required alignment precision even when arrays are positioned closely together for high-resolution scanning.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach significantly improves image scanning speed, reduces noise, and enables advanced color scanning and spectrophotometric measurements by ensuring precise alignment and redundant sampling across multiple sensor arrays, overcoming the limitations of conventional sensor array assemblies.
Implementation Method 1
Sensor arrays comprising a plurality of linearly aligned photodiodes or photosites
Data Source
AI summary
A sensor array assembly including a first sensor array, a second sensor array and a mounting substrate. The first sensor array includes a first process direction width and a first photosite, while the second sensor array includes a second process direction width and a second photosite. The first and second sensor arrays are separately secured on the mounting substrate. The first photosite is in precision alignment with the second photosite.