57results about How to "Shorten the optical path length" patented technology

Method and apparatus for analyzing radiation using analyzers and encoders employing the spatial modulation of radiation dispersed by wavelength or imaged along a line.

The present disclosure presents a partially-transparent (see-through) three-dimensional thin film solar cell (3-D TFSC) substrate. The substrate includes a plurality of unit cells. Each unit cell structure has the shape of a truncated pyramid, and its parameters may be varied to allow a desired portion of sunlight to pass through.

A method for the fabrication of a three-dimensional thin-film semiconductor substrate with selective through-holes is provided. A porous semiconductor layer is conformally formed on a semiconductor template comprising a plurality of three-dimensional inverted pyramidal surface features defined by top surface areas aligned along a (100) crystallographic orientation plane of the semiconductor template and a plurality of inverted pyramidal cavities defined by sidewalls aligned along the (111) crystallographic orientation plane of the semiconductor template. An epitaxial semiconductor layer is conformally formed on the porous semiconductor layer. The epitaxial semiconductor layer is released from the semiconductor template. Through-holes are selectively formed in the epitaxial semiconductor layer with openings between the front and back lateral surface planes of the epitaxial semiconductor layer to form a partially transparent three-dimensional thin-film semiconductor substrate.

The present invention provides a beam homogenizer for homogenizing energy distribution by making the distance between lenses small to shorten the optical path length with the use of an array lens of an optical path shortened type, and a laser irradiation apparatus using the beam homogenizer. The beam homogenizer is equipped with a front side array lens of an optical path shortened type whose second principal point is positioned ahead on a beam incidence side, a back side array lens of an optical path shortened type whose first principal point is positioned behind on a beam emission side, and a condensing lens, wherein the distance between the second principal point of the front side array lens and the first principal point of the back side array lens is equal to the focal length of the back side array lens.

Method and apparatus for analyzing radiation using analyzers and employing the spatial modulation of radiation dispersed by wavelength or along a line.

A micro lens includes a base material and a lens formed on the base material, wherein the lens is disposed at an opening on the base material, and the opening is formed by covering a surface of the base material with a first monolayer; and the first monolayer has critical surface energy of 22 mN / m or lower and shows non-affinity for a lens material in comparison with a region within the opening, and is fixed to the surface of the base material via a covalent bind.

A light-emitting device with an array of window openings to enhance the light extraction efficiency from this device is provided. This array of window openings is employed to create a much larger sidewall area to enhance the light extraction from the sidewalls of these openings. With this array of window openings, photons trapped due to the total internal reflection can propagate within the device and be extracted from the sidewalls of these openings. A variation of designs can be applied to the array of window openings. Even the shape of these openings can be designed such that the area of the sidewalls is increased. Large-sized light-emitting diodes can improve the light extraction efficiency by employing the array of window openings.

A phosphor point source element comprises a disk substrate and light emitting phosphor particles arranged on the substrate to provide a circular operational track having a desirable tightly packed particle arrangement adjacent to a flat operational surface of an operational track region. The operational track region is rotated while illuminated to provide a high intensity point source of radiation. The tightly packed particle arrangement may be achieved by spinning the phosphor particles in a cavity between a fabrication plate and the substrate, to compress the phosphor against the fabrication plate at the periphery of the cavity, or by mechanically compressing the phosphor. An adhesive binding agent may permeate the phosphor particles and be cured to maintain the tightly packed arrangement. A window element may support and / or protect the operational surface, in some embodiments.

The present invention provides a highly practicable color purity improving sheet that while preventing unevenness in color and brightness from occurring, allows light with an improved color purity to be used for an image display efficiently and can improve color reproducibility of the image display. The color purity improving sheet includes a light-emitting layer which improves the purity of a color in a target wavelength range by absorbing light in a specific wavelength range other than the target wavelength range and converts the absorbed light to emitted light in the target wavelength range. The surface of the light-emitting layer on at least the light outgoing side is roughened so as to have an arithmetic average surface roughness Ra defined in JIS B 0601 (1994 version) in the range of 0.1 to 100 mum.

A zoom viewfinder substantially consists of, in order from the object side: a variable-magnification objective lens system substantially consisting of a first lens group that includes a negative first-group first lens and a reflective member arranged in this order from the object side, a positive second lens group that is moved during magnification change, and a positive third lens group that is moved during magnification change; an erect optical system having a reflective surface for converting an inverted image into an erect image; and a positive eyepiece lens system, wherein conditional expressions (1), (2A) and (3) below are satisfied:1.5<U2 / U1<3.0  (1),1.76≦|f2 / f1|<2.0  (2A) and1.0<f3 / f2<5.0  (3).

An image reading device is provided which is capable of obtaining an image with satisfactory definition without causing an increase in the number of reading pixels and with reduction in costs. Mirror driving sections change a length of an optical path between an original document and a lens to change a scaling factor of an image to be formed on an image sensor. When high-density reading of a small-sized original document rendering a narrow reading range is required, specified mirrors are rotated to prevent light from travelling through a mirror so as to guide the light into a lens with the decreased number of times of reflection by mirrors occurring during a time period before the light reaches a lens and so that a length of an optical path is shortened, which enables an image, to be formed on an image sensor, to be enlarged.

A color light projector utilizes color light-emitting diodes (120, 140Y, and 140Z or 320X, 320Y, and 320Z) as light sources. Digital light modulators (124 and 144 or 324X, 324Y, and 324Z), typically digital micromirror devices, perform reflective color light modulation. In one implementation, light of three or more colors is modulated efficiently with only two modulators so that the component count and cost are low. In another implementation, each of three different colors is modulated with a separate modulator. A beam combiner (104 or 304) combines the digitally modulated beams (136* and 156* or 336X*, 336Y*, and 336Z*) of color light to produce a composite beam (166 or 346) of the different colors. A projection lens device (106) projects the composite color beam.

A semiconductor laser includes a gain region; a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) region including a diffraction grating; an end facet facing the DBR region with the gain region arranged therebetween; a first ring resonator including a first ring-like waveguide and a first optical coupler; a second ring resonator including a second ring-like waveguide and a second optical coupler; and an optical waveguide that is optically coupled to the end facet and extending in a predetermined optical-axis direction. The first and second ring resonators are optically coupled to the optical waveguide through the first and second optical couplers, respectively. Also, the DBR region, the gain region, and the end facet constitute a laser cavity. Further, the first ring resonator has a free spectral range different from a free spectral range of the second ring resonator.

A lighting optical unit having an optical system for irradiating light from a light-source lamp on a predetermined object in a uniform and / or convergent manner includes a reflector for reflecting light from the light-source lamp to provide converged light and an optical assembly for collimating this converged light to provide a bundle of approximately parallel rays, wherein the bundle of approximately parallel rays is made to enter the optical systeml. Thus, in a liquid-crystal projector using a transmission type liquid-crystal panel with micro-lens, while a demand for increasing a quantity of light incident on an effective area of pixel of a liquid-crystal panel is being satisfied, the lighting optical unit can be made compact in size.

The invention discloses a structured light projector, a three-dimensional camera module and terminal equipment, and the structured light projector comprises a light source array which is used for emitting at least two light beams; The lens array is used for collimating the at least two beams of light emitted by the light source array so as to obtain at least two collimated independent coherent light beams; And the diffractive optical element array is used for modulating the at least two collimated independent coherent light beams to obtain at least two diffracted light beams. By using the structured light projector, the light path length between the light source array and the lens array can be reduced, so that the height of the structured light projector can be reduced, and the structuredlight projector can be light and thin.

The present invention provides a beam homogenizer for homogenizing energy distribution by making the distance between lenses small to shorten the optical path length with the use of an array lens of an optical path shortened type, and a laser irradiation apparatus using the beam homogenizer. The beam homogenizer is equipped with a front side array lens of an optical path shortened type whose second principal point is positioned ahead on a beam incidence side, a back side array lens of an optical path shortened type whose first principal point is positioned behind on a beam emission side, and a condensing lens, wherein the distance between the second principal point of the front side array lens and the first principal point of the back side array lens is equal to the focal length of the back side array lens.

A laser light shaping optical system 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention comprises an intensity conversion lens 11 for converging and shaping an intensity distribution of laser light incident thereon into a desirable intensity distribution; a phase correction lens 12 for correcting the laser light emitted from the intensity conversion lens 11 into a plane wave by homogenizing a phase thereof; and an expansion / reduction optical system 20, arranged between the intensity conversion lens 11 and the phase correction lens 12, for expanding or reducing the laser light emitted from the intensity conversion lens 11.

Uneven brightness is less likely to occur in a backlight unit. In a backlight unit 12, suppose that a maximum value and a minimum value of light reflectance of at least a first surface 30a of a diffuser plate 30 facing a hot cathode tube 17 are defined as Rmax Rmin, respectively, a rising proximal position BP of each rising portion 20b of a reflection sheet 20 is provided to overlap with an area of the diffuser plate 30 having light reflectance R that satisfies the Expression given below, and a rising distal position EP of each rising portion 20b is provided not to overlap with an area of the diffuser plate 30 having the light reflectance R that satisfies the Expression given below.(Rmax−Rmin) / 2+Rmin<R

An interferometry system including: a first imaging system that directs a measurement beam at an object to produce a return measurement beam from the object, that directs the return measurement beam onto an image plane, and that delivers a reference beam to the image plane; and a beam combining element in the image plane, said beam combining element comprising a first layer containing an array of sagittal slits and a second layer containing an array of tangential slits, wherein each slit of the array of sagittal slits is aligned with a corresponding different slit of the array of tangential slits, wherein the beam combining element combines the return measurement beam with the reference beam to produce an array of interference beams.

A phosphor point source element comprises a substrate and light emitting phosphor particles arranged on the substrate to provide a circular operational track having a tightly packed particle arrangement adjacent to a flat operational surface of an operational track region. The operational track region is rotated while illuminated at a point to provide a high intensity point source. The tightly packed particle arrangement may be achieved by spinning the phosphor particles in a cavity to compress the phosphor on the substrate at the periphery of the cavity, or by other mechanical compression. The tightly packed phosphor arrangement may either be compressed against a forming element that bounds the cavity, or machined, to provide a flat operational surface. An adhesive binding agent that permeates the phosphor particles may be cured to fix the tightly packed arrangement. A window element may support and / or protect the operational surface, in some embodiments.

An imaging lens unit includes, from an object side, a diaphragm, a first lens, and a second lens placed on an image side of the first lens. The first lens is a positive meniscus lens convex toward the object side, and at least one side of the first lens has an aspherical surface. The second lens is a meniscus lens convex toward the image side, and at least one side of the second lens has an aspherical surface. Further, a maximum value of an angle between a tangent to a surface on the image side of the second lens and a normal to an optical axis is in a range of 65° to 90° within an effective diameter of the second lens.

There is provided an image pickup apparatus that is capable of being reduced in size when a barrel unit including a dimming device is used. An image pickup apparatus 1 includes a barrel unit 2 that emits incident image-pickup light after bending the optical path of the image-pickup light, and an image pickup device 3 that detects the image-pickup light emitted from the barrel unit 2 to obtain an image pickup signal. The barrel unit 2 has a dimming device (a liquid crystal dimming device 26) in a bending region of the optical path of the image-pickup light. As compared with an existing image pickup apparatus in which the dimming device is disposed in a region (on an optical path between the bending region and the image pickup device 3) on the image pickup device 3 side in the barrel unit, a length of an optical path (a length of a lens) of the image-pickup light up to the image pickup device 3 is reduced by an amount of the installation space of the dimming device.

To reduce the optical path length of the entire optical system in a reproduction or recording optical system of an optical recording medium, and promote miniaturization and reductions in costs of apparatuses. An optical head apparatus has an optical system an including a light source and a translucent optical element and irradiates light exiting from the light source, after having been transmitted through the optical element, onto the optical recoding medium. The optical element has a surface or surfaces having negative power on the light-source side and a surface or surfaces having positive power on the optical-recording-medium side. In order to increase the power of the surface or surfaces, one or more of these surfaces are formed as a hologram surface on which a concentric hologram pattern is formed.

An optical scanning apparatus includes a light source device, a rotating polygon mirror, a first optical system, and a second optical system. The light source device has at least one light emitter. The first optical system can cause a light beam emitted from the light source device to be incident on the rotating polygon mirror. The width of the incident light beam is larger than the width of the deflecting surface of the rotating polygon mirror in the main scanning direction. The second optical system leads the light beam deflected by the rotating polygon mirror to a surface to be scanned. The surface to be scanned is scanned with the light beam in the main scanning direction by the rotation of the rotating polygon mirror. The number of the deflecting surfaces of the rotating polygon mirror is ten or less, and each conditional expression is satisfied.

An interferometry system including: a first imaging system that directs a measurement beam at an object to produce a return measurement beam from the object, that directs the return measurement beam onto an image plane, and that delivers a reference beam to the image plane; and a beam combining element in the image plane, said beam combining element comprising a first layer containing an array of sagittal slits and a second layer containing an array of tangential slits, wherein each slit of the array of sagittal slits is aligned with a corresponding different slit of the array of tangential slits, wherein the beam combining element combines the return measurement beam with the reference beam to produce an array of interference beams.

A semiconductor laser includes a gain region; a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) region including a diffraction grating; an end facet facing the DBR region with the gain region arranged therebetween; a first ring resonator including a first ring-like waveguide and a first optical coupler; a second ring resonator including a second ring-like waveguide and a second optical coupler; and an optical waveguide that is optically coupled to the end facet and extending in a predetermined optical-axis direction. The first and second ring resonators are optically coupled to the optical waveguide through the first and second optical couplers, respectively. Also, the DBR region, the gain region, and the end facet constitute a laser cavity. Further, the first ring resonator has a free spectral range different from a free spectral range of the second ring resonator.

The present invention is directed to off axis optical signal redirection architectures that employ positionable reflective microstructures (e.g. microelectromechanical (MEM) mirrors) fabricated on one or more substrates. In one embodiment, an optical signal redirection system (10) includes a reflective microstructure array (12) formed on a substrate (30). The reflective microstructure array (12) includes one or more reflective microstructures (14). Each of the reflective microstructures (14) includes an optically reflective surface (20) and is positionable with respect to the substrate (30) in order to orient its reflective surface (20) for redirecting optical signals (24) incoming from one or more originating locations (16) to one or more target locations (18). Each orientation required for a given reflective microstructure (14) to redirect an optical signal (24) incoming from an originating location (16) to a target location (18) is defined by a unit vector (22) that is normal to the reflective surface (20) of such reflective microstructure (14). An average normal vector (26) associated with the reflective microstructure array (12) defined as the average of the set of individual unit normal vectors (22) forms a first non-zero angle θ with respect to the substrate normal (34).