Ultrathin Compound Eye Camera for Super-Resolution Far-Field Imaging Using Light Absorbing Multiple Layers

Abstract

This work reports an ultrathin compound eye camera with monolithic light absorbing layers for super-resolution far field imaging. The structure of our camera system features microlens arrays (MLA) formed an inverted direction, multiple block layers (MBL) to block optical crosstalk around the lenses, spacers and a CMOS image sensor array (ISA). Also, the monolithic MBL structure were used to reduce the total thickness of the lens with spacers to 740\ \mu \mathrm{m} and clear array images were obtained using the packaged camera. The modulation transfer function (MTF) 50% representing the quality of an image was improved by about 1.5 times using super-resolution far field imaging. This ultrathin compound eye camera can help in reducing the overall thickness of devices with embedded imaging components such as smartphones.