/Patent Tracker
SamsungGranted patentCameras & imagingInterest 6/10

Samsung patents camera lenses using nanostructures to fix color blur

Patent drawing
Patent drawing from the official filing.

Samsung has been granted a patent for an imaging lens system that combines traditional glass elements with 'meta lenses.' These meta lenses use surfaces made of tiny nanostructures to bend light in specific ways. The design places one meta lens before the center of the camera module and another after it to correct different types of color distortion.

Why it mattersThis technology could help smartphone cameras produce sharper images with less color fringing, especially in low-light or high-contrast scenes.

In the filing’s own words

A meta lens includes a first lens surface, and a second lens surface provided opposite to the first lens surface, wherein at least one of the first lens surface and the second lens surface is a metasurface including a plurality of nanostructures having a sub-wavelength dimension that is less than a central wavelength λ 0 in an operation wavelength band of the meta lens, and wherein a deflection property of the first lens surface and a deflection property of the second lens surface based on positions of incident light are opposite to each other in at least some regions of each of the first lens surface and the second lens surface.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. An imaging lens comprising a plurality of lens elements, the imaging lens comprising: a plurality of refractive lenses; a first meta lens provided in a position of a light path before a medium position along an arrangement order of the plurality of lens elements, the first meta lens comprising a first metasurface comprising a plurality of nanostructures, wherein the arrangement order is in a direction toward an image sensor corresponding to the imaging lens; a second meta lens, provided at a position of the light path after the medium position along the arrangement order of the plurality of lens elements, wherein the second meta lens comprises: a first lens surface; and a second lens surface opposite to the first lens surface, wherein at least one of the first lens surface and the second lens surface is a metasurface comprising a plurality of nanostructures having a sub-wavelength dimension, wherein the first lens surface has a first deflection property based on positions of incident light in at least some regions of the first lens surface and the second lens surface has a second deflection property based on positions of incident light in at least some regions of the second lens surface, wherein the first deflection property is different from the second deflection property, wherein the first meta lens is configured to correct longitudinal chromatic aberrations of the imaging lens, and wherein the second meta lens is configured to correct lateral chromatic aberrations of the imaging lens.

Facts

Company
Samsung (SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.)
Official title
Meta lens and optical apparatus including the same
Patent number
US12748244B2
Application number
18224990
Filed
Jul 21, 2023
Granted
Sep 29, 2026
Inventors
3
Claims
19

Classified under

G02B 3/04 Physics & computingG02B 1/002 Physics & computingG02B 5/126 Physics & computingG02B 1/14 Physics & computing
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

More from Samsung in Cameras & imaging

Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.