Single Sensor Stereo Camera with Wafer-Level Manufacturing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Stereo camera systems face challenges in miniaturization, requiring high accuracy in relative positioning of closely spaced cameras for accurate triangulation and image quality, which is difficult to achieve with traditional multiple imaging sensor configurations due to packaging constraints and cross-talk issues.
Innovation Solution
The use of a single imaging sensor with multiple imaging objectives and precision manufacturing methods like wafer-level manufacturing, along with non-homogeneous coatings to improve image quality and reduce cross-talk, allows for compact and accurate stereo camera systems with improved image capture capabilities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If two cameras are placed very close to each other for miniaturization, then the device size is reduced, but the relative positioning accuracy and image quality deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple imaging systems onto a single imaging sensor substrate. Multiple imaging objectives (lenses) are positioned at different locations on the same sensor chip, eliminating the need for separate sensor packages. This integration maintains compact device size while ensuring precise relative positioning through monolithic fabrication, resolving the contradiction between miniaturization and positioning accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces mechanical assembly and alignment of separate camera modules with a semiconductor manufacturing process. Wafer-level fabrication techniques are used to create multiple imaging objectives and their corresponding sensor regions in a single integrated structure, substituting mechanical positioning with precision controlled during semiconductor fabrication, thereby achieving both miniaturization and high positioning accuracy.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple imaging sensors are used for stereo camera systems, then image capture capability is improved, but packaging complexity and cross-talk issues increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple imaging systems that would traditionally require separate sensor packages into a single integrated imaging sensor. Multiple imaging objectives focus light onto different regions of the same sensor chip, eliminating the need for complex multi-sensor packaging, alignment, and isolation structures, thereby reducing packaging complexity while maintaining multi-image capture capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a single sensor substrate as an intermediary that receives and processes light from multiple imaging objectives. This unified substrate acts as a common platform that eliminates cross-talk issues between separate sensors and simplifies the overall system architecture, as all imaging data is captured and processed through a single integrated sensor interface.
Data Source
AI summary
A camera device includes a single imaging sensor, a plurality of imaging objectives associated with the single imaging sensor, and a plurality of dedicated image areas within the single imaging sensor, each of the plurality of dedicated image areas corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of imaging objectives, such that images formed by each of the plurality of imaging objectives may be recorded by the single imaging sensor.