Detailed Description
In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, exemplary embodiments according to the present application will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be apparent that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present application and not all embodiments of the present application, and it should be understood that the present application is not limited by the example embodiments described herein. Based on the embodiments of the application described in the present application, all other embodiments that a person skilled in the art would have without inventive effort shall fall within the scope of the application.
In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present application. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the application may be practiced without one or more of these details. In other instances, well-known features have not been described in detail in order to avoid obscuring the application.
It should be understood that the present application may be embodied in various forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the application to those skilled in the art.
In order to provide a thorough understanding of the present application, detailed structures will be presented in the following description in order to illustrate the technical solutions presented by the present application. Alternative embodiments of the application are described in detail below, however, the application may have other implementations in addition to these detailed descriptions.
Dispersion correction has long been one of the key points in conventional optical designs, and most of the conventional lenses are refractive optical lenses, and the refractive index of the refractive optical lens optical material is related to not only the physical properties of the material itself, but also the wavelength of light. The same optical material has shorter wavelength and higher refractive index, and different deflection degrees of different color lights are different, so that chromatic dispersion is generated. Different optical materials also tend to have different dispersions. Chromatic aberration is unavoidable due to chromatic dispersion of optical materials, and a traditional optical design for completely correcting chromatic aberration requires an optical imaging system with complex structure and large volume, and has strict requirements on the types of optical materials and large processing difficulty.
With advances in optical basic theory, lenses began to technically innovate from traditional refractive optical lenses to diffractive lenses and even to super-structured lenses. The super-structure lens is designed by a free structure, parameter modulation, mature semiconductor processing mode, no aberration and super-resolution optical imaging effect, and becomes the main stream direction of future lenses. However, due to physical limitations, monolithic lenses, either refractive optical lenses or super-structured lenses, can suffer from chromatic dispersion problems. Therefore, by designing and assembling a small amount of refractive optical lenses and super-structure lenses, a dispersion-free optical imaging system can be realized, and meanwhile, the super-structure lenses have aberration-free and super-resolution characteristics, so that a next-generation optical imaging system is formed.
In view of the foregoing, the present application provides an optical imaging system, and the optical imaging system provided by the present application will be described and illustrated with reference to fig. 1 to 7, wherein fig. 1 illustrates an optical imaging system according to an embodiment of the present application, fig. 2 illustrates a super-configuration lens according to an embodiment of the present application, fig. 3 illustrates an optical imaging system according to an embodiment of the present application, fig. 4 illustrates an optical imaging system according to an embodiment of the present application, fig. 5 illustrates an optical imaging system according to an embodiment of the present application, fig. 6 illustrates an optical imaging system according to an embodiment of the present application, fig. 7 illustrates an optical imaging system according to an embodiment of the present application, and it is worth mentioning that features of various embodiments of the present application may be combined with each other without collision.
In one embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the optical imaging system provided by the application comprises a refractive optical component 2 and a diffractive optical component which are positioned on the optical path of incident light, wherein the refractive optical component 2 comprises at least one refractive optical lens, the diffractive optical component comprises at least one super-structure lens 3, one of the refractive optical component 2 and the diffractive optical component is configured to have at least negative dispersion characteristics in the visible light band range, the other is configured to have at least positive dispersion characteristics in the visible light band range, or the refractive optical component 2 and the diffractive optical component are both at least non-dispersive to light in the visible light band range. Through mutual compensation between positive dispersion and negative dispersion, the optical imaging system can be made to appear as colorless, or the refraction optical component 2 can be utilized to realize no dispersion, or the structure of the diffraction optical component can realize no dispersion, so that the optical imaging system is free of dispersion, and the imaging effect of the optical imaging system in imaging is improved. In addition, by adding the super-structure lens 3 into the optical imaging system, the optical imaging system also has aberration-free and super-resolution characteristics of the super-structure lens 3, and compared with the traditional optical imaging system consisting of refractive optical lenses, the optical imaging system provided by the application has the advantages that the super-structure lens 3 is introduced, and compared with the traditional optical imaging system, the module thickness (TTL), complexity and processing difficulty are reduced.
As shown in fig. 1, the incident light may be light emitted from a light source or the imaging object 1, that is, light scattered by the imaging object, or the light source may be an illuminating lamp capable of emitting light, such as an LED light source or a laser light source.
In one embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the super-structured lens 3 is a diffractive optical element, the super-structured lens 3 comprising a substrate 3a and a micro-nano structured layer 3b formed on the substrate 3a, wherein the micro-nano structured layer 3b comprises a plurality of micro-nano structured units comprising a plurality of first micro-nano structured units and at least one second micro-nano structured unit (not shown) configured to split an incoming light ray into a plurality of outgoing light rays, the at least one second micro-nano structured for modulating high frequency components of the light wave.
Further, the substrate 3a may be any suitable material, for example, the substrate 3a may include glass, quartz substrate, silicon substrate, diamond substrate, silicon oxide, etc. The first micro-nano structure layer and the second micro-nano structure layer unit can be a convex structure positioned on the surface of the substrate 3 a.
The micro-nano structured layer 3b corresponding to the optical imaging system in the foregoing may be formed on the substrate 3a by any suitable method by a person skilled in the art. For example, the micro-nano structure may be formed in the polymer by coating a polymer material on the substrate 3a and then by imprinting, or the micro-nano structure layer 3b may be formed by etching the substrate 3a, or the like.
Illustratively, the micro-nano structural units include at least one of square column-like micro-nano structures, cylindrical micro-nano structures, fishing net-like columnar micro-nano structures, antenna-like micro-nano structures, or other periodic micro-nano structures of other types having an adjustment of the phase, amplitude and polarization of the light field, wherein the micro-nano structural units included in the micro-nano structural layer 3b may be identical in shape, or the micro-nano structural units included in the micro-nano structural layer 3b may have different shapes in different regions, and when the optical imaging system includes a plurality of super-structured lenses 3, the structures of the different super-structured lenses 3 may be identical, or may also be different.
In one embodiment, the micro-nano structure layer 3b comprises at least one cylindrical micro-nano structure with different structures, wherein the parameters of the cylindrical micro-nano structure are satisfied that the corresponding light wavelength is 400-10 mu m, the diameter of the cylindrical micro-nano structure is 1/10-1/2 of the light wavelength, the height of the cylindrical micro-nano structure is 1/2 of the light wavelength, the diameter of the cylindrical micro-nano structure shows periodical structure change in a variable range, and the included angle between the cylindrical structure and the plane of the substrate 3a is 90 DEG+/-5 deg.
In the present exemplary embodiment, the micro-nano structure layer 3b is divided into a periodic arrangement, the period of which is a phase modulation period corresponding to the light wavelength of 400-10 μm, and the phase modulation effect after the light wavelength is transmitted is formed by the periodic variation. The specific parameters are as follows, according to the refractive index of the material, the distance range of the required arrangement of the structure corresponding to one pi/4 or pi/8 phase of the corresponding light wavelength is calculated, each stage period of the micro-nano structure is 1/8 or 1/16 complete 2 pi phases, and 8 or 16 periods form a complete 2 pi phase structure together.
In the present exemplary embodiment, the super-structured lens 3 is a transmissive super-structured lens, and incident light enters from the micro-nano structured layer 3b side and exits from the substrate 3 a.
In the present application, the refractive optical lens refers to an optical element that changes the propagation direction of light using a refraction phenomenon. Alternatively, whether the dispersion of a refractive optical lens is negative depends on the material and shape of the lens. In general, refractive optical lenses have positive dispersion, i.e. the focal length of red light is longest, the focal length of violet light is shortest, and the focal length of intermediate colors is in between. This is because the refractive index of the different color lights in the lens is different, resulting in different refraction angles of the different color lights, thereby causing color distortion of the image. However, there are special lenses that can achieve negative dispersion, i.e. the focal length of red light is the shortest and the focal length of violet light is the longest, with the focal length of the intermediate color in between. These lenses are typically composed of a combination of lenses of different materials and refractive indices, such as a bi-or tri-cemented lens. The double-glued sheet is formed by bonding a positive dispersion convex lens and a negative dispersion concave lens, and the triple-glued sheet is formed by bonding a positive dispersion convex lens and two negative dispersion concave lenses. These lenses may take advantage of the differences in different materials and curvatures to eliminate or reduce chromatic dispersion.
In some embodiments, the refractive optical lens may include one of a spherical optical lens, a Fresnel lens, a free-form surface lens, and a cemented doublet.
The spherical optical lens is a transparent body formed by two spherical surfaces or one spherical surface and one plane, and can focus or disperse incident light. The convex lens and the concave lens can be classified according to the shape and function of the lens. The convex lens can make the parallel light converged at the focus to form a real image, and the concave lens can make the parallel light divergent to form a virtual image.
The Fresnel lens is a thin sheet consisting of a series of concentric rings, and the thickness and the curvature of each ring are designed according to the Fresnel formula so as to simulate the action of a complete spherical lens. Fresnel lenses have the advantages of light weight, small volume, low cost, and significant chromatic aberration and diffraction losses. Free-form lens, which refers to a transparent body of arbitrary shape that is not constrained by a sphere or other regular curved surface, can achieve more complex and precise light control. The free-form surface lens is an optical lens without rotational symmetry, and the surface of the lens can be formed by random combination of asymmetric, irregular and complex free-form surfaces. The free-form lens can realize functions which cannot be realized by the traditional optical lens, such as reducing the number of elements in an optical system, improving the field of view and imaging quality, realizing personalized design and the like.
A doublet refers to a lens obtained by gluing two lenses together. The combined lens formed by the two lenses has short focal length, large magnification and better imaging quality.
The chromatic dispersion of a spherical optical lens refers to chromatic distortion of imaging caused by different focal lengths of different colors of light due to different refractive indexes of the different colors of light in the lens. This phenomenon, also called chromatic aberration, is an aberration that exists for all spherical lenses. Since the lens cannot converge all the colors of light to the same focal plane, the size and position of an image formed by each color of light are different, and this effect is called chromatic aberration magnification. The spherical lens has positive dispersion, i.e. the focal length of red light is longest, the focal length of violet light is shortest, and the focal length of intermediate color is between the two. The dispersion of the fresnel lens is positive, i.e. the focal length of red light is longest, the focal length of violet light is shortest, and the focal length of the intermediate color is in between. This is because the fresnel lens is a diffraction lens whose focusing effect is determined by the diffraction phenomenon of light waves, and light waves of different colors have different wavelengths and diffraction angles. The dispersion of the fresnel lens is much greater than that of the refractive optical lens.
It should be noted that, when the refractive optical assembly 2 includes a plurality of refractive optical lenses, the different refractive optical lenses may be different types of lenses, or may also be the same type of lenses, and may be specifically selected reasonably according to practical needs.
In the present application, the number of refractive optical lenses included in the refractive optical element 2 may be any suitable number, and the number of super-structured lenses 3 included in the diffractive optical element may be any suitable number, and may be specifically and reasonably set according to actual needs. In one example, as shown in fig. 1, the optical imaging system may include one refractive optical lens and one super-structure lens 3, where light exiting from the refractive optical lens is incident on the super-structure lens 3, for example, the micro-nano structure layer 3b of the super-structure lens 3 is located on the light incident side, that is, the refractive optical lens is located between the light source/imaging object 1 and the super-structure lens 3, and light exiting from the super-structure lens 3 is incident on the imaging chip 4, and the refractive optical lens may play a role of beam shrinking. In another example, the optical imaging system may include one refractive optical lens and one super-structured lens 3, where the light exiting the super-structured lens 3 is incident on the refractive optical lens, that is, the super-structured lens 3 is located between the refractive optical lens and the light source/imaging object 1, and the light exiting the refractive optical lens is incident on the imaging chip 4. In order to achieve no chromatic dispersion, the refractive optical lens in the present embodiment has a negative dispersion characteristic of light wavelengths ranging from visible light (400-720 nm) to mid-far infrared band (720 nm-10 um), the super-structured lens 3 has a positive dispersion characteristic of light wavelengths ranging from visible light (400-720 nm) to mid-far infrared band (720 nm-10 um), and the refractive optical lens and the super-structured lens 3 compensate each other, thereby enabling the optical imaging system to achieve no chromatic dispersion and no chromatic aberration focusing at least in the visible light band range, thereby improving the imaging effect.
In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 3, the optical imaging system provided by the application comprises 2 refractive optical lenses and 1 super-structure lens 3, wherein 1 refractive optical lens 2 and 1 super-structure lens 3 are sequentially arranged from the object side to the image side along the optical axis, that is, along the optical path of the incident light, 2 refractive optical lenses and 1 super-structure lens 3 are arranged between the light source/imaging object 1 and the imaging chip 4, wherein the two refractive optical lenses may comprise a first refractive optical lens 21 and a second refractive optical lens 22, alternatively, the first refractive optical lens 21 and the second refractive optical lens 22 may have the same size and be coaxially arranged, and in some embodiments, the first refractive optical lens 21 and the second refractive optical lens 22 may also have different sizes, or may also have different types of lenses. With continued reference to fig. 1, light is incident from a light source or an imaging object 1 to an imaging chip 4 along an optical axis, wherein the super-structure lens 3 has negative dispersion characteristics to generate negative chromatic aberration, and the first refractive optical lens 21 and the second refractive optical lens 22 have positive dispersion characteristics to generate positive chromatic aberration, and the purpose of eliminating chromatic aberration and chromatic aberration of the optical imaging system is achieved by optimizing the distances between the first refractive optical lens 21 and the second refractive optical lens 22 and the super-structure lens 3 in an optical path, and the parameters of the super-structure lens 3 and the parameters of the first refractive optical lens 21 and the second refractive optical lens 22 so that the refractive optical lens and the super-structure lens generate chromatic aberration with equal and opposite magnitudes in light of an operating band. The refractive optical lens is not limited to a spherical lens, and may be a lens of another shape.
The front and rear positions of the refractive optical element 2 and the diffractive optical element on the optical path of the incident light may be reasonably set according to actual imaging requirements, in an example, along the propagation direction of the incident light, the refractive optical element 2 is located in front of the diffractive optical element, and the incident light enters the refractive optical element 2 and exits to the diffractive optical element, specifically for example, as shown in fig. 1,4, 6 and 7, along the propagation direction of the optical path of the incident light, the refractive optical lens is located in front of the over-configured lens 3, that is, the refractive optical lens is closer to the light source or the imaging object 1 than the over-configured lens 3, and the refractive optical lens may play a role of converging or collimating the incident light and then entering the over-configured lens 3, which may implement imaging with a large field angle, where the field angle may refer to a field angle of not less than 100 ° or even not less than 120 °. For another example, the super-structured lens 3 is located in front of the refractive optical lens in the propagation direction of the optical path of the incident light, i.e. the super-structured lens 3 is closer to the light source or the imaging object 1 than the refractive optical lens.
In some examples, as shown in fig. 3, the refractive optical assembly 2 includes a first refractive optical lens 21 and a second refractive optical lens 22, the diffractive optical assembly including an over-structured lens 3, the over-structured lens 3 being disposed between the first refractive optical lens 21 and the second refractive optical lens 22.
In other examples, the refractive optical element 2 is located behind the diffractive optical element along the propagation direction of the incident light, and the incident light enters the diffractive optical element and exits to the refractive optical element 2, for example, as shown in fig. 5, the refractive optical element 2 includes a first refractive optical lens 21 and a second refractive optical lens 22, the diffractive optical element includes an over-configured lens 3, and the over-configured lens 3 is disposed behind the first refractive optical lens 21 and the second refractive optical lens 22, that is, the incident light enters the over-configured lens 3 after passing through the first refractive optical lens 21 and the second refractive optical lens 22 in sequence.
It is worth mentioning that although the figures mainly refer to the case of having an optical imaging system with 1 refractive optical lens and 1 super-structure lens, or two refractive optical lenses and 1 super-structure lens, it is conceivable that it may also comprise more than two refractive optical lenses, and/or that it may also comprise more than 1 super-structure lens. For example, it may include 3 refractive optical lenses and 2 super-structured lenses, and the positions of the 3 refractive optical lenses and the 2 super-structured lenses may be arbitrarily arranged on the optical path of the incident light.
The optical imaging system provided by the present application will be further described and illustrated with reference to fig. 6 and 7.
In some embodiments, the field angle of the optical imaging system provided by the application is greater than 100 degrees, and the optical imaging system comprises a refractive optical component 2 and a diffractive optical component, wherein the refractive optical component 2 comprises at least one refractive optical lens, and the diffractive optical component comprises at least one super-structure lens 3. The refractive optical element 2 may further have a wide-angle imaging effect, at least part of refractive optical lenses in the refractive optical element 2 are located in front of the diffractive optical element along the propagation direction of the incident light, the incident light is refracted by the refractive optical element 2 and then enters the diffractive optical element, the refractive optical element 2 is configured to shrink the incident light and then exits to the diffractive optical element, where the angle of view of the refractive optical element 2 is greater than 100 °, and further may be greater than 120 °, for example, as shown in fig. 6 and 7, the first refractive optical lens 2121, the second refractive optical lens 22 and the super-constitutive lens 3 are disposed in the same optical axis from the object side to the image side along the optical axis, the aperture of the first refractive optical lens 21 is greater than the aperture of the second refractive optical lens 22, and the first refractive optical lens 21 and the second refractive optical lens 22 are used to shrink the light from the light source or the imaging object 1 into the super-constitutive lens 3.
In particular, the refractive optical lens in the present embodiment has a wide-angle imaging effect, and light rays from the light source or the imaging object 1 in a large field angle are converged into the imaging field angle of the super-configuration lens by interaction of the two refractive optical lenses, thereby obtaining a non-chromatic optical imaging system of a large field angle.
The field angle refers to an angle formed by two edges of the maximum range of the refractive optical element 2, such as a refractive optical lens, through which an object image of a measured object can pass in the optical imaging system. Its size determines the field of view of the optical imaging system.
The definition of the aperture of a refractive optical lens refers to the effective diameter of the optical element, i.e. the maximum range through which light can pass. The aperture of the refractive optical lens determines the luminous flux and numerical aperture of the optical element, thereby affecting the brightness and resolution of the optical element. Numerical aperture refers to the product of the sine of the half-apex angle of the largest cone beam that an optical element can receive or emit and the refractive index of the medium, expressed by na=nsinα, where n is the refractive index of the medium and α is the half-apex angle.
With continued reference to fig. 6, the light source or the imaging object 1 is disposed on the same optical axis as the first refractive optical lens 21, the second refractive optical lens 22, the super-configuration lens 3 and the imaging chip 4, and light is incident from the light source or the imaging object 1 into the imaging field angle of the super-configuration lens through the first refractive optical lens 21 and the second refractive optical lens 22 in order along the optical path. As shown in fig. 7, the optical imaging system is used for imaging when the light source or the imaging object 1 deviates from the optical axis, and as can be seen from fig. 7, when the light source or the imaging object 1 deviates from the optical axis, the light source or the imaging object can also pass through the optical imaging system and then be imaged on the imaging chip 4.
It should be noted that fig. 6 and 7 only show the case of having two refractive optical lenses, but it is understood that in some embodiments, the wide-angle function may be achieved by only one or more than two refractive optical lenses, and in other embodiments, the diffractive optical element may further include another refractive optical lens, such as at least one third refractive optical lens, in addition to the part of the refractive optical lens disposed in front of the diffractive optical element, and the at least one third refractive optical lens may be disposed behind the super-lens, and the light exiting the super-lens may be transmitted after entering the third refractive optical lens and finally enter the imaging chip 4 for imaging.
In summary, compared with the traditional optical imaging system, the optical imaging system provided by the application is formed by combining the refractive optical lens and the super-structure lens, so that the optical imaging system without dispersion is realized, and the imaging effect of the optical imaging system in imaging is improved. In addition, by adding the super-structure lens into the optical imaging system, the optical imaging system also has the aberration-free and super-resolution characteristics of the super-structure lens, and compared with the traditional optical imaging system consisting of refractive optical lenses, the optical imaging system provided by the application has the technical advantages that the super-structure lens is introduced, compared with the traditional optical imaging system, the module thickness (TTL), complexity and processing difficulty are reduced, the structure is simple, the miniaturization is realized, and the requirements of achromatic lenses in various fields can be met.
Further, the present application also provides an optical module that may include the aforementioned optical imaging system, and illustratively, the optical module may include a focusing element or the like for achieving zooming and focusing in addition to the aforementioned optical imaging system.
Further, the application also provides an electronic device, which comprises the optical imaging system and the imaging chip 4, wherein the imaging chip 4 is used for receiving the light emitted by the optical imaging system or comprises the optical module.
The imaging chip 4 may include an image sensor, which is a device capable of capturing and converting light into an electrical signal, and may be used to form an image. Imaging sensors are of two main types, charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) and Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductors (CMOS). The CCD sensor uses a global shutter to start and stop the exposure of all pixels simultaneously, suitable for fast moving scenes. The CMOS sensor uses a rolling shutter to sequentially start and stop exposure of each row of pixels, and is suitable for a low power consumption and high frame rate scene.
The basic structure of an image sensor is illustratively made up of an array of many tiny photosensitive elements, each referred to as a pixel. Each pixel measures the intensity and color of light falling on it and generates a corresponding voltage or digital value. The number and size of the pixels determine the resolution and sensitivity of the imaging sensor.
The electronic device may be any device that needs to have an optical imaging system, and may include, for example, security devices, terminal devices, removable platform devices, and the like. The terminal device may include, but is not limited to, a cell phone, tablet computer, notebook, desktop computer, VR/AR glasses, etc., and the mobile platform device includes, but is not limited to, a vehicle, an aircraft, a ship, a robot, etc., where the vehicle may also be an unmanned vehicle, the aircraft may also be an unmanned aerial vehicle, etc.
The electronic device provided by the application has the same advantages as the optical imaging system.
Although the illustrative embodiments have been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the above illustrative embodiments are merely illustrative and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application thereto. Various changes and modifications may be made therein by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the application. All such changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present application as set forth in the appended claims.
It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments illustrate rather than limit the application, and that those skilled in the art will be able to design alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. In the claims, any reference signs placed between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim. The application may be implemented by means of hardware comprising several distinct elements, and by means of a suitably programmed computer. In the unit claims enumerating several means, several of these means may be embodied by one and the same item of hardware. The use of the words first, second, third, etc. do not denote any order. These words may be interpreted as names.