US 12,300,970 B2
Digital camera with VCSELs
Carlos Fernando Rondina Mateus, Berkeley, CA (US); Christopher Chase, Berkeley, CA (US); Michael C. Y. Huang, Taipei (TW); Murat Serbay, Berlin (DE); Stefano Prandoni, Berlin (DE); and Philip Worland, Berkeley, CA (US)
Assigned to Bandwidth10, LTD.
Filed by Bandwidth10, LTD., Berkeley, CA (US)
Filed on Jun. 9, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/207,826.
Application 18/207,826 is a continuation in part of application No. 18/111,902, filed on Feb. 21, 2023.
Application 18/207,826 is a continuation in part of application No. 18/107,140, filed on Feb. 8, 2023.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/432,050, filed on Dec. 12, 2022.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/415,268, filed on Oct. 11, 2022.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/402,546, filed on Aug. 31, 2022.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/402,556, filed on Aug. 31, 2022.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/402,553, filed on Aug. 31, 2022.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/402,560, filed on Aug. 31, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2024/0429684 A1, Dec. 26, 2024
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H01S 5/30 (2006.01); H01S 5/028 (2006.01); H01S 5/183 (2006.01); H04N 23/55 (2023.01); H04N 23/56 (2023.01)
CPC H01S 5/3095 (2013.01) [H01S 5/0286 (2013.01); H01S 5/18344 (2013.01); H04N 23/56 (2023.01); H04N 23/55 (2023.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A digital camera system, comprising:
a tunable VCSEL laser including:
a first mirror;
one or more active regions with a first active region adjacent to the first mirror, each of an active region including quantum wells and barriers, each of an active region surrounded by one or more p-n junctions, the one or more active regions including a selected shape structure each with a tunnel junction (TJ);
one or more apertures provided with the selected shape structure;
one or more buried tunnel junctions (BTJ), additional TJ's, planar structures and/or additional BTJ's are created during a regrowth process that is independent of a first growth process of the first mirror, the active region and the one or more TJs;
one or more electrical confinement apertures defined by the one or more BTJ's, additional TJ's, planar structures and/or additional BTJ;
a vertical resonator cavity disposed over the electrical confinement aperture;
a high contrast grating (HCG) operating as a second mirror positioned over the vertical resonator cavity, the HCG configured to reflect a first portion of light back into the vertical resonator cavity, and a second portion of the light as an output beam from the tunable VCSEL laser, the HCG structure being layered on the selected shape structure;
wherein a shape of the output beam of the light emitting device is determined by a geometric shape of the one or more BTJ apertures, apertures for additional TJ's, planar structures and/or additional BTJ's, with a transmission function of the HCG and is designed according to the desired optical transmission function of the application;
a user monitoring device that includes the tunable VCSEL laser;
a camera with an interior;
an image sensor coupled to the camera and having a plurality of sensor pixels for capturing a digital image; and
an imaging lens for forming an image of a scene onto an image plane, the imaging lens having an imaging lens aperture.