Apple’s Periscope Lens Patent Exposure
Apple might be busy planning of upcoming iPhone 13 Series of phones which we are most concerned about. Besides the preparation of the iPhone 13 Series, Apple is also working on a periscope lens design for iPhone, but that was later used in another series.
Recently, Patently found Apple’s periscope lens patent for periscope lens design, which the company calls a Folding Lens. The design consists primarily of two prisms which are illustrated below.
The patent describes an implementation of a folding lens that includes two light-folding elements that are prisms and a separate lens system between the two prisms that includes an aperture stop and a lens element with refractive power mounted in the lens barrel. Prisms and lens systems can be collectively referred to as optical systems.
The prism provides the camera with a “folded” optical axis that can be used to thin the projection of the lens module. The lens system includes a lens stack including one or more refractive lens elements mounted in the lens barrel, and a first lens element or aperture stop in front of it located in the lens stack.
The first prism directs light from the object from a first axis (AX1) to a lens system on a second axis (AX2). The lens elements stack receives light through the aperture diaphragm and refracts the light through the second prism to the third axis (AX3) of the camera’s photoreceptor. This light will form an imaging plane at or near the surface of that sensor.
Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted last year at this time that the iPhone could use a special periscope camera lens in 2022 that could provide better optical zoom performance than what is currently available on the iPhone. He believes that South Korea’s Semco and China’s Sunwoo Optical entered Apple’s lens supply chain.
