Fraunhofer IPMS

Inka Krischke,

Multispectral camera with just one lens

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS have developed a high-resolution camera that uses several detectors to generate congruent images for different spectral ranges through a single lens.

Image taken with the multispectral camera in the visible and infrared spectral range.

© Fraunhofer IPMS

For many applications - for example in security technology for monitoring airports, tunnels or railroad stations, in automotive technology for driver assistance systems, in environmental analysis, in industrial measurement technology or medical technology - it is desirable or even necessary to obtain spectrally broadband image information. In addition to the visible spectral range, the infrared spectral range with wavelengths above a few micrometers is of particular interest.

Systems currently available on the market use optics, materials and components adapted for different spectral ranges. For example, classic glasses cannot be used for lenses in the infrared spectral range as they are not transparent. Lenses made from expensive semiconductor materials are therefore often used here. In addition, image acquisition with several cameras from different directions is always subject to parallax. This requires time-consuming post-processing of the image data for the exact assignment of image data from different cameras.

These disadvantages can be eliminated with the multispectral camera, which generates congruent, parallax-free images with several detectors using only one optical system, explains Dr. Sebastian Meyer, Business Unit Manager at Fraunhofer IPMS. The fully reflective, multispectral camera system uses two image sensors for different spectral ranges behind a common lens. The lens is designed as a special oblique mirror lens, which avoids the chromatic aberrations or central shadowing that occur in previous systems. The individual mirror surfaces are at least partially aspherical to correct geometric imaging errors and are provided with suitable coating layers to ensure high reflectivity over a wide spectral range. Due to the parallax-free simultaneous image acquisition in different spectral ranges using a common lens, this approach eliminates the need for time-consuming post-processing of the two images and the need for a second lens. The choice of spectral ranges is only limited by the available detectors due to the absence of chromatic aberration in the lens.

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