Single-Chip Streak Camera and Illumination System

This invention uses an Angular Spatial Light Modulator (ASLM) in a projection mode, to create a streak camera. With a novel arrangement of illumination and digital micro-mirror devices (DMDs), an "image per angle" system can be created. Angularly sequential images abut one another such that the viewer sees a single continuous image.

 

Background: 
Some types of 3D image projection systems place one image on one eye, and an angularly differentiated image of the same scene on the other eye simultaneously. The combined images create a 3D "data cube" to define a frame of an image. The inventors have determined numerous systems and methods for projecting images that comprise a data cube, where each image of the cube is projected in a different angular direction.

 

Applications:

  • Streak camera
  • 3D projector
  • Multi-photon illumination sources for microscopes
  • 3D lithography system


Advantages:

  • Much higher angular and spatial modulation rates
  • Faster than conventional streak cameras

Status: issued U.S. patent #11,950,026

Patent Information: