Super resolution with pixel shifting

Optotune’s beam shifters displace light laterally by accurately tilting a glass window. In image acquisition or projection systems pixel shifting can lead to resolution gains of factor 4. While in color cameras a full pixel shift is performed to get the full resolution of each color channel (no debayering needed), in monochrome systems the shift is usually half a pixel. As a side effect, the combined image will also benefit from having less image noise.

The beam shifter is typically placed right in front of the image sensor. Clear apertures range from 9mm to 46mm, whereas the shift can be diagonal (2P operation) or in X & Y (4P operation).

Main features:

• Fast transition times (1 ms)

• Highly reliable and suitable for continuous operation

• High angular position accuracy of typically +/-5%

• Fully pre-calibrated at 50Hz & 60Hz for temperatures up to 75°C

• Low acoustic noise of typically 20dBA 30cm

Applications

Optotune’s Extended Pixel Resolution (XPR) technology has been developed in 2017 to quadrupel the resolution of projectors based on Texas Instrument’s DLP® imagers. Applications span from portable pico-projectors to laser TV to digital cinema.

In camera systems, Optotune’s XPRs are the ideal way to increase resolution when smaller pixels or larger sensors are not available or too expensive.

Furthermore, non-imaging applications include optical fiber coupling, 3D printing, and metrology (phase shifting).

Related products:

Related applications: