NILT fits two metalenses into a 1.68 mm camera module
Image: Image: NIL Technology.
NIL Technology has launched metaEye, a near-infrared camera that places two meta-optical elements, a bandpass filter and apertures into a solid optical stack mounted directly on the image sensor’s cover glass.
The complete module measures 1.68 × 1.68 × 2.11 mm, including the cover glass and BGA and weighs 12.9 mg. It is designed for eye tracking in smart glasses and headsets, where the optics have to fit within a small mechanical envelope alongside the sensor.
Meta-optics uses patterned nanostructures to control the optical wavefront. NILT’s arrangement replaces the conventional refractive lens stack, removing air gaps and plastic lens elements from this design. NILT makes the optical elements internally and uses partners for camera assembly.
“We engaged multiple key customers in qualification builds over the past 1.5 years,” said Brian Orr, senior vice-president of sales and marketing. NILT says customers are ramping products to mass production this year, although it has not named them in the announcement.
The published specification pairs an OG0TC1B sensor with an 850 ± 20 nm design wavelength and an integrated 850 nm bandpass filter. Full-resolution output is 400 × 400 pixels at 240 frames per second, rising to 480 frames per second at 200 × 200. Output uses one MIPI D-PHY lane or one C-PHY trio.
With a specified object-distance range of 15–40 mm and an f/2.4 aperture, the module is configured to look at an eye from inside a wearable. Its illumination wavelength and working distance make it a specialised optical component, despite the small package.
The company offers the wider metaCamera architecture for other configurations, including far-field and macro imaging. Those are separate optical configurations rather than additional operating modes established for metaEye.
Sources
Image: The metaEye camera module and flex beside a pin for scale, in NIL Technology’s supplied press photograph. Image: NIL Technology. Image source. Editorial image reuse terms.
