JP6737325B2 - Imaging module and imaging device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an imaging module and an imaging device using coded aperture imaging.

Imaging devices represented by cameras are widely used for ornamental purposes such as photography, industrial measurement/object recognition systems, vehicle danger detection, and crime prevention monitoring systems. In these usage patterns, it is often required to acquire not only an image of a subject but also spatial information such as a distance and a viewing direction.

As a technique capable of acquiring such spatial information, information regarding the space and the incident angle of the light flux incident on the image sensor is acquired by performing a decoding process based on Fourier transform using the image sensor and the coded aperture pattern. The technology is already known (for example, see Patent Document 1).

Further, there is already known a technique for improving the image quality by performing a decoding process from a captured image by a plurality of types of coded aperture patterns by using a spatial light modulator that is reconfigurable to this coded aperture pattern, that is, an active spatial light modulator. (For example, see Patent Document 2).

Further, as an element used for such a spatial light modulation element, a liquid crystal element or an alternative technique thereof has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Documents 3 and 4 and Non-Patent Document 1).

However, in the conventional coded aperture imaging technique and the image pickup apparatus using the coded aperture pattern, the image pickup element and the coded aperture pattern are separately installed, and the coded aperture pattern needs to be provided in the optical path. Further, in addition, the size of the image pickup device becomes large, competition of the mounting position with an optical component such as a movable mirror occurs, high accuracy is required for the installation position of the coded aperture pattern and the image pickup device, lens replacement, etc. There were mounting problems such as inability to deal with changes in the optical system.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and uses an image pickup module in which an image pickup element and a spatial light modulation element that imparts spatial modulation to an image by a coded aperture pattern are integrated. Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image pickup apparatus in which the distance between the image pickup element and the coded aperture pattern is short and the arrangement is performed with high accuracy.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, in the present invention, a spatial light modulation element that imparts spatial modulation to an incident light flux and emits the light flux, and a light flux spatially modulated by the spatial light modulation element is angled. An image pickup device that obtains image information containing information, and a fixing unit that integrally fixes the spatial light modulator and the image pickup device, and the fixing unit includes the spatial light modulator and the image pickup device. And a fixing member having a light guide element for guiding a light beam incident from one surface to the other surface. , The light guide element is fixedly arranged between the image pickup element and the spatial light modulation element so as to have a constant distance between the spatial light modulation element, and the opening area of the one surface. The opening area of the other surface is different.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an image pickup apparatus in which the distance between the image pickup element and the coded aperture pattern is short and which is arranged with high accuracy.

It is a figure which shows an example of the whole structure of the imaging device and imaging module in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the imaging module in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of operation|movement of the optimization means of the imaging device in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of operation|movement of the element drive part of the imaging device in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the 1st modification of the structure of the imaging module in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure showing an example of composition of an image pick-up module and an image pick-up device which have a light guide element in an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the 2nd modification of a structure of the imaging module in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the 3rd modification of the structure of the imaging module in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the 4th modification of a structure of the imaging module in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the 5th modification of a structure of the imaging module in embodiment of this invention.

The imaging device 1 shown in FIG. 1 in the present embodiment includes an imaging module 2 for acquiring an image, an imaging optical system 3 that images an incident light flux and emits it toward the imaging module 2. And a mirror 4 for selecting an optical path from the image optical system 3.
The image pickup apparatus 1 also includes a finder 6 for confirming a field of view, a deflecting element 5 for deflecting light from the mirror 4 to the finder 6, a shutter 8 for determining an exposure time, and a control for controlling these members. And part 9.
The above-mentioned configuration other than the image pickup module 2 is the same as that of a general single-lens reflex camera, but a so-called mirrorless single-lens reflex configuration in which the finder 6 and the mirror 4 are removed and a liquid crystal monitor is provided instead may be used.

The configuration of the imaging module 2 will be described with reference to FIG.
The image pickup module 2 includes a spatial light modulation element 21 that emits light with a spatial modulation applied to the incident light velocity, an image pickup element 22 that acquires the spatially modulated light flux as image information, and a spatial light modulation element. It has a fixing portion 23 that integrally fixes the image pickup device 21 and the image pickup device 22.
The image pickup module 2 also includes a wiring 25 that electrically connects the spatial light modulator 21 and the image pickup element 22, and a logic circuit 13 for processing a signal from the control unit 9.

The spatial light modulation element 21 is a transmissive liquid crystal device, and by changing the transmittance at each position by the control unit 9, a coded aperture pattern, in other words, a mosaic pattern is formed, so that the incident light flux can be changed. Adds spatial modulation.

The image pickup device 22 is an image sensor using a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) as a photodetector array which is an image pickup surface for acquiring the light flux spatially modulated by the spatial light modulator 21 as image information. A photodetector array 28 in which photodiodes, which are photodetectors that are a plurality of photodetectors, are arranged side by side is arranged on the image pickup element 22, and information such as the intensity of the light flux incident on the image pickup surface is converted into an electric signal. Convert. Although the CCD is used here, a CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) sensor or the like may be used as long as it is an image sensor capable of acquiring image information.

The fixed portion 23 has a gap defining member 24 that is arranged between the spatial light modulator 21 and the image pickup element 22 to form a gap structure with a constant interval.
The fixing unit 23 fixes the spatial light modulation element 21 and the image pickup element 22 in parallel at a constant interval. Here, the fixing portion 23 may use a fixing member such as a screw, or may use an adhesive or the like, or may integrally mold the spatial light modulation element 21 and the image pickup element 22. ..
In the present embodiment, the gap defining member 24 is a Si substrate having an opening, and the gap defining member 24 has a function as the fixing portion 23. The gap defining member 24 is in contact with at least one of the spatial light modulation element 21 and the image pickup element 22, and is a few mm or less between the spatial light modulation element 21 and the image pickup element 22, depending on the thickness of the opening and the Si substrate. Form a void structure of 1 mm or less, in other words, a gap structure.
The gap defining member 24 is a Si substrate having an opening here, but a transparent member such as a glass material or a joining member such as a glass frit material in which beads are dispersed may be used.
When a transparent member is used as the gap defining member 24, the gap structure does not have to be a void structure because it does not hinder the passage of a light beam, and the distance between the spatial light modulation element 21 and the image pickup element 22 is not required. The gap distance is controlled by the thickness of the transparent member.
The wiring 25 is formed by wire bonding. The wiring 25 may be a through wiring 26 that penetrates at least one of the spatial light modulation element 21 and the imaging element 22 and is electrically connected. The through wiring 26 will be described later in detail.
The logic circuit 13 functions as a spatial light modulation pattern generation assisting unit or a control assisting unit that operates according to an electric signal from the control unit 9.

The imaging optical system 3 includes an imaging lens group 30 including at least one lens, which is arranged to form an image on the image sensor 22, and a diaphragm 7 for adjusting the amount of incident light. Have
The imaging optical system 3 is arranged so as to form an image on the image pickup element 22 by the light flux that has entered the image pickup apparatus 1. In other words, the focus is arranged on the image sensor 22 on the upstream side of the image pickup module 2 in the optical axis direction.

The light flux that has entered the image pickup apparatus 1 is deflected by the image forming lens group 30 so as to form an image on the image pickup element 22, and passes through the diaphragm 7 to adjust the light amount.
The light flux that has passed through the imaging optical system 3 is reflected by the mirror 4 when not being photographed, and is guided to the finder 6 through the deflection element 5. At the time of shooting, the mirror 4 operates so as to pass the light flux from the imaging optical system 3. In this way, the mirror 4 operates as a movable mirror which is an optical path selecting means.

The light flux that has passed through the mirror 4 and has entered the spatial light modulation element 21 is spatially modulated by the spatial light modulation element 21.
The control unit 9, which is an element driving unit, controls the transmittance distribution of the spatial light modulator 21 by using the spatial transmittance distribution obtained by superposing a plurality of sinusoidal waveforms having different periods.
Hereinafter, the minimum unit capable of controlling the transmittance distribution is called a cell.
The spatial light modulation element 21 forms a coded aperture pattern by changing the transmittance of each cell on the element according to an electric signal from the control section 9 as an element driving section, in other words, a periodic modulation signal.
That is, the spatial light modulation element 21 imparts spatial modulation to the light flux passing through the spatial light modulation element 21 by periodically changing the transmittance of each cell on the element.
At this time, the control unit 9, which is an element driving unit, functions as a spatial light modulation pattern generation unit.

When forming a coded aperture pattern using such spatial transmittance distribution, the spatial frequency position corresponding to the cycle of the sine wave, that is, the horizontal axis when Fourier transform is performed The spectral distribution in the spatial frequency band is reproduced in the form of convolution integral.
That is, the spatial frequency spectrum distribution of the subject is duplicated on the axis of the spatial frequency by the number of cycles of the sine waveform. Here, the angle information can be separated by mixing the frequency information of the angle component depending on the magnitude of the frequency of the sine waveform (for example, Non-Patent Document 1).

Here, when the space between the spatial frequencies corresponding to the period of the adjacent sine waveform is narrower than the spatial frequency band of the subject, aliasing occurs in which the high frequency component of the spatial frequency interferes with the low frequency component. As a result, deterioration of the image with separated view angles, superposition of noise on the restored image, and the like occur. In order to avoid this, it is necessary to make the spatial frequency band of the obtained image information different from the period of the sinusoidal waveform given to the spatial light modulator 21 to the extent that aliasing does not occur.

A processing flow for avoiding aliasing in this way will be described with reference to FIG.
Here, the image characteristic analysis unit, the spatial light modulation pattern generation unit, the image quality determination unit, and the decoding processing unit 12 are all functions of the control unit 9 in the present embodiment.
First, the control unit 9 acquires an initial image when there is no spatial modulation or a certain spatial modulation is performed (step S1).
The spatial frequency band of this initial image is analyzed by the control unit 9 as an image characteristic analyzing means. The control unit 9 determines the frequency of the sine wave required to be applied to the spatial light modulator 21 by analyzing the spatial frequency band of the initial image (step S2).
Then, the control unit 9, which is the spatial light modulation pattern calculation means or the spatial light modulation pattern generation means, calculates and generates the spatial light modulation pattern based on the frequency of the sinusoidal waveform obtained by such processing (step S3). At this time, the control unit 9 has a function as a coded aperture pattern calculation means or a coded aperture pattern generation means. Based on the spatial light modulation pattern obtained in step S3, the control unit 9 as the element driving unit changes the transmittance of the spatial light modulation element 21 and acquires image information again (step S4).
Further, the control unit 9 as the image quality determination means determines whether the image quality of the acquired image information is sufficiently good, in other words, whether the spatial frequency of the obtained image information falls within the condition that aliasing does not occur. The determination is made (step S5). When it is determined that the image quality is insufficient, the process returns to step S2 to return to the analysis of the spatial frequency and the same process is repeated, that is, the image quality is optimized by the feedback mechanism under the condition that aliasing does not occur. When the optimization of the image quality is completed, the desired spatial information, in this case, the image information with the separated view angle is acquired (step S6).

The light flux to which the spatial modulation is applied is recognized by the image sensor 22 as image information. This image information includes information as to which cell on the spatial light modulator 21 and at what time it has passed since the spatial modulation is applied according to the periodic modulation signal.
That is, from the image information and the position of the image sensor 22 where the image information is detected, angle information of the light beam detected by the image sensor 22, that is, information of the direction component of the light beam can be obtained.

From the image information thus obtained, the spatial modulation is removed using the decoding processing means 12 to reconstruct the image, thereby eliminating the need for a special device configuration such as providing a plurality of imaging devices, Obtain an image containing spatial information such as distance and direction.

In the present embodiment, it is possible to acquire the distance information to the subject by optimizing the distance resolution by targeting a specific subject included in the image.
A method of acquiring such spatial information will be described with reference to FIG. 4 by taking acquisition of distance information as an example.
However, a detailed description of a method of calculating parallax information from a plurality of angle-of-view separated images will be appropriately omitted.

First, the control unit 9 as the spatial light modulation pattern generation means generates an arbitrary spatial light modulation pattern (step S21). The control unit 9 acquires an image using the arbitrary spatial light modulation pattern generated in step S21 (step S22), and extracts a plurality of field angle separation information (step S23).
Next, the control unit 9 as a distance resolution determination unit, which is an image characteristic analysis unit, analyzes the image information separated from the angle of view, and calculates distance information about the local position of the subject as a specific target in the image ( Step S24). Using the distance information calculated in step S24, the control unit 9 as the distance resolution determination means determines whether the obtained image has the desired resolution (step S25).
When the resolution of the obtained image is insufficient, the control unit 9 as the spatial light modulation pattern generating means recalculates the cycle of the sine wave forming the spatial light modulation pattern (step S26).
The control unit 9 changes the angle of view separation resolution based on the spatial light modulation pattern calculated in step S26 to generate the spatial light modulation pattern again to acquire a new image (step S27).
The distance resolution optimization mechanism that forms such a feedback loop optimizes the distance resolution, and finally a distance image suitable for the target subject is acquired (step S28).

At this time, the resolution of the angle information of the light flux obtained by the image pickup module 2 and the viewing angle of the obtained image information are the size of the image pickup element 22, the size of each cell of the spatial light modulation element 21, the image pickup element 22 and the spatial light. It is determined by the distance to the modulation element 21, that is, the gap distance.

However, in the conventional technique, the coded aperture pattern and the photodetection array are independently installed and controlled, and it is difficult to install the two adjacently. In addition, when a configuration such as a liquid crystal element in which the pattern can be actively changed is used as the coded aperture pattern, electrical connection to the liquid crystal element is indispensable, but known methods such as wire bonding do not cause damage. There is a fear that the implementation problem has not been solved.
Such a problem has not been a problem when the gap distance is relatively large.
Therefore, in the present invention, a fixed portion that integrally fixes the spatial light modulation element 21 and the image pickup element 22 and a fixed part that is disposed between the spatial light modulation element 21 and the image pickup element 22 to form a gap structure at a constant interval. And a gap defining member 24.
With such a configuration, the spatial light modulator 21 and the image sensor 22 are integrated and modularized, so that the gap distance is shortened and the positions of the image sensor 22 and the spatial light modulator 21 are adjusted with high accuracy. , Highly accurate image information with high angular resolution can be obtained.

The spatial light modulation element 21 in the present embodiment forms a reconfigurable coded aperture pattern that periodically changes its transmittance, but a high frequency signal is often used for such control. Generally, in a circuit using a high frequency signal, it is desirable to shorten the length of the wiring in order to suppress noise and signal loss.

By making the spatial light modulator 21 a transmissive liquid crystal device, devices and control members in the market can be used as they are, and in addition to the above-mentioned effects, an image containing spatial information at a reduced cost can be used. Information is obtained.

Further, the spatial light modulator 21 may be a wet capillary type spatial light modulator 21 other than a liquid crystal device (see, for example, Patent Documents 3 and 4 and Non-Patent Document 1).
The wet capillary type spatial light modulation element 21 controls the light transmittance by adjusting the amount of the liquid inside the fine pore structure body by an electric signal and the fine pore structure body capable of containing the liquid. And a transmittance control unit.
With such a configuration, since the entire irradiation area of the incident light flux is made of the transparent material, all the light receiving elements on the image pickup element 22 located in the lower layer of the spatial light modulation element 21 can be used, and the image or Image information including spatial information is acquired at a higher resolution.

Further, in measurement requiring high accuracy, it is desirable that the spatial light modulation element 21 and the image pickup element 22 be aligned with each other in terms of horizontal position, rotation, parallelism, and the like with pixel-order accuracy.
If the wet capillary type spatial light modulation element 21 is used, the spatial light modulation element 21, the image pickup element 22, and the gap defining member 24 can all be manufactured by a semiconductor process, so that imaging is performed without using an adhesive or the like. It becomes easy to integrally form the module 2. With such a configuration, the alignment can be performed with an accuracy of about the pixel size, and therefore, the accuracy and the precision are higher than in the case where the spatial light modulator 21 and the image sensor 22 are integrated by using an adhesive or the like. Image information of resolution can be obtained.
Since the spatial light modulation element 21 and the image pickup element 22 are integrally fixed while maintaining a constant space and are electrically connected by the wiring 25, the image pickup module 2 is provided with spatial information without being restricted by the mounting form. The image information including is acquired with higher resolution and/or higher accuracy.

Further, the image pickup apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment includes a control unit 9 that is an element driving unit that drives a spatial light modulation element in order to periodically change the modulation, and a decoding process that reconstructs an image by removing the modulation from the image information. And means 12. With this configuration, the image pickup apparatus 1 forms an optimal coded aperture pattern according to the characteristics of the subject or the shooting scene, and acquires image information including an image or spatial information.

Further, in the present embodiment, the control unit 9, which is an element driving unit, uses the spatial transmittance distribution obtained by superimposing a plurality of sinusoidal waveforms having different periods to impart spatial modulation to the light flux transmitted through the spatial light modulation element 21. doing.
With such a configuration, the image pickup apparatus 1 forms an optimum coded aperture pattern using the image characteristic information acquired from the image in the spatial light modulation element 21 to prevent the image deterioration factor depending on the characteristic of the subject or the imaged scene. Obtain the excluded high-quality image information.

Further, in the present embodiment, the control unit 9 as the element driving unit periodically changes the modulation applied to the spatial light modulation element 21 based on the analysis result by the control unit 9 as the image characteristic analysis unit that analyzes the image information.
With such a configuration, the image pickup apparatus 1 forms an optimum coded aperture pattern according to the characteristics of the subject or the image pickup scene, and thus obtains image information including a more accurate image or spatial information.

In general, a liquid crystal device that is easily available and effective for cost reduction has a very large size per cell of a liquid crystal element as compared with the size of a photodiode that is a photodetector. Therefore, there is a concern that the photodetector cannot be efficiently used only by controlling the transmittance of the liquid crystal device and using it as the coded aperture pattern, because the resolution of the coded aperture pattern is different from that of the imaging surface.

A first modified example of the imaging module 2 for solving such a concern will be described.
The image pickup module 2 shown in FIG. 5 is different from the image pickup module 2 shown in FIG.
The fixed portion 23 includes a light guide path element 27 for guiding the light flux incident from the surface on the spatial light modulation element side to the surface on the image pickup element side, a support structure 29 for supporting the light guide path element 27, and the spatial light. It has a gap defining member 24 arranged between the modulation element 21 and the light guide element 27.
The light guide element 27 is fixedly disposed between the image pickup element 22 and the spatial light modulation element 21 so as to have a constant space between the light guide element 27 and the spatial light modulation element 21. It has a taper shape in which the opening area and the opening area of the surface on the image pickup element 22 side are different.
The light guide element 27 is a fiber taper plate obtained by heating and stretching a fiber plate made by bundling optical fibers and then cutting and polishing the fiber plate. The light guide element 27 has a resolution on the surface on the spatial light modulation element 21 side and a surface on the image pickup element 22 side. The resolution is different.
The light guide element 27 is fixed by contacting an image pickup element 22 which is an image pickup surface with a surface having a small opening area, and forms a gap structure of several mm or less, preferably 1 mm or less with respect to the spatial light modulation element 21. It is fixed integrally with the spatial light modulator 21 via 24.
With such a configuration, the light guide element 27 expands the imaging surface in a pseudo manner to the surface of the light guide element 27 on the side of the spatial light modulator 21 to change the resolution.
Therefore, even when the pixel pitch of the spatial light modulation element 21 is larger than the pixel pitch of the image pickup element 22 and the resolutions are different, the spatial light modulation element 21 is pseudo-high resolution by the enlarged image pickup surface. To obtain an image with higher spatial resolution.
The spatial light modulator 21 is connected to the control unit 9 by an electrical wiring 25.
In the present embodiment, the light guide element 27 is connected to the spatial light modulator 21 by the gap defining member 24 arranged between the spatial light modulator 21 and the light guide element 27.
The imaging element 22 and the light guide element 27 are arranged in contact with each other, but by applying matching oil for suppressing light reflection at the boundary surface to the contact surface, the utilization efficiency of the light flux is improved and it is better. It is possible to capture images with various image quality.

Since the pixel pitch of the spatial light modulation element 21 is generally larger than the pixel pitch of the image pickup element 22, the light guide element 27 is arranged with the surface having a small opening area facing the image pickup element 22 side. The surface having a small opening area may be directed toward the spatial light modulator 21 side.
In this case, the light guide element 27 reduces the image pickup surface to the surface of the light guide element 27 on the side of the spatial light modulator 21 in a pseudo manner, so that the image pickup element 22 has a pseudo high resolution. When the resolution of the element 22 is coarse, a higher resolution image is obtained.

The configuration and operation other than those described with reference to FIG. 5 are the same as the configuration and operation of the imaging module 2 as shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 shows a configuration example of the image pickup apparatus 1 including the image pickup module 2 shown in FIG.
Differences from the imaging device 1 shown in FIG. 1 will be described. In the configuration including the image pickup module 2 in the first modified example, the pseudo image pickup surface is located on the incident surface of the light guide element 27, that is, the surface of the light guide element 27 on the spatial light modulation element 21 side. The pixel pitch is larger than that of the image pickup surface.
Therefore, the image forming optical system 3 needs to set the image circle, which is an image forming area as the image forming surface thereof, to be larger than that of the pseudo image pickup surface. If the restriction concerning the imaging optical system 3 is satisfied, the other configuration of the image pickup apparatus 1 is similar to that shown in FIG. 1, and may be used for various cameras and lens interchangeable type cameras.

In addition, for example, the image pickup module 2 may have a configuration in which the wet capillary type spatial light modulator 21 and the fixing portion 23 are integrally formed on the same substrate as in the second modification shown in FIG. 7. .. At this time, the fixing portion 23 has a function as the gap defining member 24 and forms a void structure. With the configuration as shown in FIG. 7, by using the wafer bonding technique in the semiconductor process for bonding the spatial light modulation element 21 and the imaging element 22, the spatial light modulation element 21 and the imaging element 22 are bonded to each other. Parallelism and positioning accuracy are improved.
As the wafer bonding technique, glass frit bonding or eutectic bonding with metal may be used.
Further, in this configuration example, the spatial light modulator 21 may be formed by vitrification by Si thermal oxidation. With such a configuration, the imaging module 2 is manufactured only by the silicon process, and the accuracy is improved while reducing the mass production cost.

It should be noted that it is difficult to secure a sufficient wiring space in the laminated portion in the configuration that uses the wafer bonding technique in the semiconductor process for bonding the spatial light modulation element 21 and the imaging element 22.
Therefore, it is desirable that the electrical connection between the spatial light modulator 21 and the image pickup element 22 is a through wiring 26 such as a silicon through via (TSV, Through-Silicon via).
The through wiring 26 reduces the possibility of damage at the time of wiring mounting, and prevents or reduces the interference between the spatial light modulation element 21 and the image pickup element 22 and the board that controls them, and the wiring. Image information including spatial information can be obtained without restriction.
When the spatial light modulation element 21 and the image pickup element 22 are integrated with each other and an electrical connection is made by the shortest path by the through wiring 26, the transmittance of the spatial light modulation element 21 is periodically changed. Noise can be reduced or suppressed, and more accurate image information can be obtained.

Further, as in the third modified example shown in FIG. 8, the spatial light modulation element 21 and the image pickup element 22 of the image pickup module 2 are arranged integrally with the fixing portion 23 and are made of a transparent member such as a glass material. Alternatively, the gap defining member 24 may be arranged inside.
With such a configuration, by processing the spatial light modulation element 21 in a state of being bonded to the transparent member, the thickness of the spatial light modulation element 21 can be reduced and the imaging module 2 can be downsized.
As shown in FIG. 8, a joining member 241 made of a glass frit material may be provided between the gap defining member 24 and the image sensor 22.

Further, when the control unit 9 is provided on the spatial light modulation element 21 as in the fourth modified example shown in FIG. 9, the gap structure is secured by the gap defining member 24 using a transparent member. It is possible to provide a sufficient area for circuit formation.
With such a configuration, the image pickup apparatus 1 can be downsized.

Further, as in the fifth modification shown in FIG. 10, the image pickup device 22 is of a backside illumination type, and the backside is deeply dug to maintain the gap distance between the image pickup device 22 and the spatial light modulation device 21. However, since the thickness of the image pickup device 22 can be reduced, the image pickup module 2 can be downsized.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to such specific embodiments, and the present invention described in the claims unless otherwise specified. Various modifications and changes are possible within the scope of the above.

For example, in the above embodiment, the image pickup apparatus 1 may be various types of image pickup apparatuses such as a compact digital camera and a small camera mounted on a mobile device.

According to the above-described embodiment, a spatial light modulation element that imparts spatial modulation to an incident light flux and emits the light flux, and an imaging that acquires the light flux spatially modulated by the spatial light modulation element as image information. An element and a fixing portion that integrally fixes the spatial light modulation element and the image pickup element, and the fixing portion is arranged between the spatial light modulation element and the image pickup element and has a constant interval. Since it has the gap defining member that forms the gap structure of, the distance between the image sensor and the coded aperture pattern is short and highly accurate, and the spatial information of the light can be stored while preventing the deterioration of the image such as aliasing. It is characterized in that it can be acquired with high resolution and high accuracy.

The effects described in the embodiments of the present invention are only listed as the most suitable effects resulting from the present invention, and the effects according to the present invention are limited to those described in the embodiments of the present invention. is not.

1 Imaging Device 2 Imaging Module 3 Imaging Optical System 4 Mirror 6 Finder 7 Aperture 8 Shutter 9 Control Section (Element Driving Section) (Image Characteristic Analysis Means)
12 Decoding processing means 13 Logic circuit 21 Spatial light modulation element 22 Imaging element 23 Fixed part 24 Gap defining member 25 Wiring 26 Through wiring 27 Light guide element 28 Photodetector array 29 Support structure 30 Imaging lens group 241 Joining member

JP, 2008-191661, A JP, 2008-542863, A JP, 2005-316321, A JP, 2005-316316, A Gerald Beni, G. Beni, S. Hackwood, "Applied Physics, Letters (Appl. Phys. Lett. Vol. 38, Issue 4)" (USA), 1981, p. 207-209

Claims (8)

A spatial light modulation element that imparts spatial modulation to the incident light flux and emits it,
An image sensor that acquires a light flux spatially modulated by the spatial light modulator as image information including angle information ,
A fixing unit that integrally fixes the spatial light modulator and the image sensor,
The fixed portion includes a gap defining member that is disposed between the spatial light modulator and the image sensor to form a gap structure with a constant interval.
The fixed portion has a light guide element for guiding a light beam incident from one surface to the other surface,
The light guide element is fixedly disposed between the image pickup element and the spatial light modulation element so as to have a constant space between the image pickup element and the spatial light modulation element. An imaging module characterized in that the opening area of the other surface is different. A spatial light modulation element that imparts spatial modulation to the incident light flux and emits it,
An image sensor that acquires a light flux spatially modulated by the spatial light modulator as image information including angle information ,
A fixing unit that integrally fixes the spatial light modulator and the image sensor,
The fixed portion includes a gap defining member that is disposed between the spatial light modulator and the image sensor to form a gap structure with a constant interval.
It has a through wiring which electrically connects the spatial light modulator and the image pickup device through a shortest path through at least one of the integrated spatial light modulator and the image pickup device. Imaging module. The image pickup module according to claim 1 or 2,
The spatial light modulator includes a fine hole structure capable of containing a liquid, and a transmittance control for controlling the light transmittance by adjusting the amount of the liquid inside the fine hole structure by an electric signal. An imaging module having means. The image pickup module according to claim 1 or 2,
The imaging module, wherein the spatial light modulator is a transmissive liquid crystal device. An image pickup apparatus comprising: the image pickup module according to any one of claims 1 to 4; and an image forming optical system that forms an image on the image pickup element. The imaging device according to claim 5,
An element driving unit that drives the spatial light modulator to change the modulation periodically;
And a decoding processing unit that reconstructs an image by removing the modulation from the image information. The imaging device according to claim 6,
The image pickup device, wherein the element driving unit applies the modulation using a spatial transmittance distribution in which a plurality of sinusoidal waveforms having different periods are overlapped. The imaging device according to claim 6 or 7,
The image pickup device, wherein the element driving unit periodically changes the modulation based on an analysis result by an image characteristic analysis unit that analyzes the image information.

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