Nalux Co., Ltd.

Other

Stanley Electric Co., Ltd

Flir Systems, Incorporated

Daisuke Seki

Katsumoto Ikeda

Kenta Ishii

Norihisa Sakagami

Masato Okano

Tomohito Kuwagaito

Kazuya Yamamoto

Kayoko Fujimura

Yukinobu Nishio

Takatoshi Suzuki

Makio Nishimaki

Keiji Ikemori

Sadayuki Konishi

Kayuri Kinoshita

Kouei Hatade

Tetsuya Zenko

Yosuke Sakohira

Chang Shih-Yuan

Toru Inomata

An imaging optical system wherein the number of lenses is three to seven, one to four lenses, each of which is an aspheric lens in which radius of curvature of each of both surfaces is infinity in the paraxial region and which has a power of the third-order aberration region in the peripheral area are provided, the first lens from the object side is a negative lens or the aspheric lens, the relationship

Imaging optical system

A lens for headlamps of vehicles provided with a diffraction grating on a surface, wherein a phase function of the diffraction grating is represented by where r represents distance from the central axis of the lens, and the relationship|&#x3b2;|&#xb7;(0.3)&#x3c;|&#x3b2;|&#xb7;(0.3)is satisfied where R represents effective radius of the lens, and wherein a second derivative of the phase function has at least one extreme value and at least one point of inflection where r is greater than 30% of R, a difference in spherical aberration between the maximum value and the minimum value at any value of r in0&#x2264;is equal to or less than the longitudinal chromatic aberration for visible light, the diffraction grating is at least partially on the surface where r is greater than 30%, and the relationship is satisfied.

Lens for headlamps of vehicles and method of using lens for headlamps of vehicles

A diffusion element is configured by combining: a structure for diffusion constituted by combining periodic surface structures having multiple periods to achieve a light intensity distribution in which the light intensity is uniform at angles less than or equal to a predetermined diffusion angle &#x3b8; and the light intensity is as close as possible to zero intensity at angles greater than the diffusion angle &#x3b8;; and a diffractive structure having a period of 1 or more and 2 or less times of &#x39b;max, where &#x39b;max is the maximum period of the structure for diffusion.

Diffuser

A diffuser provided with plural shapes obtained by translation on an xy plane of at least one of z=g(x, y) and z=&#x2212;g(x, y), z=g(x, y) being a smooth function within a rectangle having sides of length of s in x direction and sides of length of t in y direction, the origin being the center of the rectangle, wherein on the sides of the rectangle, and wherein z=g(x, y) has a single vertex at()()=()&#xb7;(),first derivative of()is continuous in second derivative of()has a single point of discontinuity in first derivative of()is continuous in and second derivative of()has a single point of discontinuity in 

An illumination optical system having a light source and a single convex lens with a diffractive structure, wherein the phase function of the diffractive structure is represented by where r represents distance from the central axis of the lens, the relationship|&#x3b2;|&#xb7;(0.3)&#x3c;|&#x3b2;|&#xb7;(0.3)is satisfied where R represents effective radius of the lens, the second derivative of the phase function has at least one extreme value and at least one point of inflection where r is greater than 30% of R, and the area of a surface of the light source is equal to or greater than 3% of the area of the entrance pupil when the light source side of the lens is defined as the image side.

Illumination optical system

The imaging optical system is provided with a first lens having a negative refractive power, a second lens having a positive refractive power, an aperture stop, and a third lens having a positive refractive power, disposed from the object side to the image side. With |d| being the distance between the image-side principal point of the first lens and the object-side principal point of the second lens, d=&#x2212;|d| being the signed distance between the image-side principal point of the first lens and the object-side principal point of the second lens when the image-side principal point of the first lens is further towards the image side than the object-side principal point of the second lens, and f12 being the composite focal length of the first lens and the second lens, the relationships d&#x3c;0 and 0.005&#x3c;d/f12&#x3c;16 are established.

A microlens array includes N microlenses arranged in a predetermined direction on an x-y plane. A projection onto the x-y plane of the vertex of each microlens is arranged in the vicinity of a lattice point of a reference lattice on the x-y plane, the lattice spacing of the reference lattice in the predetermined direction being D/M (millimeters) where M is a positive integer. A distance between two sides of a lens facing each other is approximately equal to D, and a distance between the projection onto the x-y plane of the vertex of the lens and the projection onto the x-y plane of a side of the lens is D/2+&#x3b5;i. Letting n represent the refractive index of the material of each microlens and letting f (millimeters) represent the focal length of each microlens, the following relationships are satisfied. 

Microlens array and optical system including the same

A microlens array, each microlens containing N sides of a convex polygon and N curved surfaces corresponding to the sides, wherein when the line passing through the microlens vertex and perpendicular to the polygon plane is z axis, the line passing through the intersection point (origin) between z axis and the plane and perpendicular to a side is x axis, z coordinate of the curved surface corresponding to the side is(),a distance from the origin to the side is t, a virtual curved surface in 0&#x2264;|x|&#x2264;t is(),refractive index of the microlens is no, A and C represents constants, and is satisfied and f (x) is determined such that an illuminance distribution in an illuminated area is more uniform than that in the case that the curved surface is shaped in a segment of a circle.

Microlens array

A diffuser is provided with a recess-protrusion structure formed on a plane. When a z-axis is defined as a normal to the plane, an x-axis is defined on the plane, the x-axis is divided into plural intervals, Snx represents length of an interval nx, Sx-max and Sx-min represent the maximum and the minimum of Snx, respectively, the relationship2&#x3c;-max/-minholds, Snx varies on a random basis between Sx-min and Sx-max, in an xz cross section, a recess portion and a protrusion portion are formed on each of adjacent intervals along the x-axis, respectively, and when dznx represents a difference between the maximum and the minimum of z coordinate of the recess-protrusion structure in the interval nx in the xz cross section, Anx represents a ratio between dznx and Snx, Anx-max and Anx-min represent the maximum and the minimum of Anx, the relationship-max/-min&#x3c;1.3holds.

Diffuser and method for manufacturing the same

An optical element is provided. When in a xz cross section, an angle which a ray travelling from the origin at &#x3b8;r forms with the normal to the light receiving surface is designated as &#x3c6;x, an angle which a ray travelling from b in the z axis direction forms, after the surface, with the z axis direction is designated as &#x3b8;ib, in a yz cross section, an angle which a ray travelling from the origin at &#x3b8;r forms with the normal to the light receiving surface is designated as &#x3c6;y, angles which a ray travelling from a in the z axis direction forms, after the light receiving and exiting surfaces, with the z axis direction are designated as &#x3b8;ia and &#x3b8;ea, and an angle which a ray travelling from the origin at arctan(a/ha) forms, after the light exiting surface, with the z axis direction is designated as &#x3b8;,&#x3c6;&#x3e;&#x3c6;(0&#x3c;&#x3b8;&#x3c;60&#xb0;)&#x3b8;&#x3e;45&#xb0;&#x3b8;&#x3e;45&#xb0;&#x3b8;&#x3e;&#x3b8;are satisfied.

Optical element, illumination device including the optical element, and illumination module including the illumination device

An infrared imaging system used for infrared rays of wavelength of 5 micrometers or greater, the system including, from the object side to the image side, an aperture, a lens made of synthetic resin and an imaging element, the object side surface of the lens being convex to the object side in the paraxial area, wherein F-number of the system is 1.4 or smaller.

Infrared imaging system

An optical scanning system includes a variable-focus element, an imaging lens and a deflector, wherein the reciprocal of the focal length f of the variable-focus element is changed from 1/fto/f, and for the case that the equation1/={(1/)+(1/)}/2holds, a beam which has passed through the variable-focus element is a divergent beam, and is satisfied, where xrepresents a distance from a virtual image point of the divergent beam to the principal point on the entry side of the variable-focus element, xrepresents a distance from the principal point on the exit side of the variable-focus element to the principal point on the entry side of the imaging lens, and x3 represents a distance from the principal point on the exit side of the imaging lens to an image point.

Optical scanning system

An optical element has a light receiving surface covering a light source arranged on a plane and an exit surface covering the light receiving surface. When an axis passing through the center of the light source and is perpendicular to the plane is designated as an optical axis and the point of intersection of the optical axis and the light receiving surface is designated as O1, the light receiving surface is concaved around the optical axis with respect to the periphery. When an angle which a normal to the light receiving surface on a point P thereon forms with the optical axis is designated as &#x3c6;h and distance in the optical axis direction from O1 to P is designated as z, &#x3c6;h has at least one local maximum value and at least one local minimum value with respect to z while P is moved along the light receiving surface.

Optical element

An optical element according to the present invention includes a light receiving surface which is designed to cover an emitting surface of a planar light source device, a reflecting surface, a light exit surface which is contiguous to the periphery of the reflecting surface. When the center of the emitting surface is designated as a point O and an axis which passes through the point O and is perpendicular to the emitting surface is designated as an optical axis of the optical element, the reflecting surface has a concave portion around the optical axis and an outer edge surrounding the concave portion.

Optical element and illumination unit

An illumination device for planar light sources gives uniform illumination on an illuminated plane. A of lengthwise direction and length of breadthwise direction are different from each other. The illumination device includes a planar light source and an optical element including a light receiving surface for receiving light form the planar light source and a light exiting surface. A shape of the planar light source is symmetric with respect to x-axis and y-axis and a length of the shape in x-axis direction is shorter than length of the shape in y-axis direction; the center of the planar light source is set as the origin and two axes orthogonal to each other are selected as x-axis and y-axis. Assuming that the maximum value of x-coordinate of the planar light source is a and the maximum value of y-coordinate of the planar light source is b, the following relationships hold: 

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Osaka, Japan

Daisuke Seki