Phase Modulating Element for Chromatic Aberration in Plastic Lens Imaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional image reading apparatuses using inexpensive plastic lenses face challenges in suppressing chromatic aberration, leading to image degradation, as correcting chromatic aberration with plastic materials is difficult compared to glass materials.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus incorporates image-forming optical elements with a phase modulating element that modulates the phase of light passing through an aperture stop, ensuring the resolution characteristics of these elements are uniform across the arrangement direction, effectively suppressing chromatic aberration by applying wavefront coding techniques.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If inexpensive plastic lenses are used, then cost is reduced, but chromatic aberration occurs and image quality degrades
Solution Approach 1:
A phase modulating element is introduced as an intermediary component between the plastic lens and the image sensor. This element compensates for chromatic aberration by modulating the phase of light waves, allowing inexpensive plastic lenses to achieve image quality comparable to expensive glass lenses without requiring complex multi-element lens designs
2Volume of moving object
If small image-forming lenses are used, then miniaturization is achieved, but chromatic aberration suppression becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The phase modulating element serves as a compact intermediary that provides chromatic aberration correction in small optical systems. By placing this element close to the image sensor, the patent achieves effective aberration suppression without increasing the overall optical system size or requiring complex lens configurations
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces complex mechanical lens designs (multiple glass elements with different refractive indices) with a phase modulating element that achieves chromatic aberration suppression through optical phase manipulation. This substitution enables effective aberration correction in miniaturized optical systems where traditional mechanical lens designs would be too bulky
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 configuration significantly reduces chromatic aberration, resulting in improved image quality and the ability to maintain consistent image resolution across different angles, enhancing the depth of field and overall image clarity.
Implementation Method 1
a phase modulating element for modulating phase of light passing through the aperture stop
Implementation Method 2
each image-forming optical element for collecting light scattered by a reading object and capturing the collected light on an image-forming surface, and thereby forming an image of the reading object on the image-forming surface
Data Source
AI summary
A plurality of image-forming optical elements are disposed such that a part of a field-of-view region of one image-forming optical element overlaps a part of a field-of-view region of an image-forming optical element disposed adjacent to the one image-forming optical element, each of the image-forming optical elements includes: a lens for collecting light scattered by a reading object; an aperture stop for cutting off some of the light collected by the lens; a phase modulating element for modulating phase of light passing through the aperture stop; and a lens for allowing the light whose phase is modulated by the phase modulating element to form an image on an image-forming surface, and the phase modulating elements are loaded such that resolution characteristics of the phase modulating elements in an arrangement direction of the image-forming optical elements are the same among the image-forming optical elements.