• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.220-220
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• 2013

Surface-normal transmission electro-absorption modulator (EAM) are attractive for high-definition (HD) three-dimensional (3D) imaging application due to its features such as small system volume and simple epitaxial structure [1,2]. However, EAM in order to be used for HD 3D imaging system requires uniform modulation performance over large area. To achieve highly uniform modulation performance of EAM at the operating wavelength of 850 nm, it is extremely important to remove the GaAs substrate over large area since GaAs material has high absorption coefficient below 870 nm which corresponds to band-edge energy of GaAs (1.424 eV). In this study, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a transmission EAM in which highly selective backside etching methods which include lapping, dry etching and wet etching is carried out to remove the GaAs substrate for achieving highly uniform modulation performance. First, lapping process on GaAs substrate was carried out for different lapping speeds (5 rpm, 7 rpm, 10 rpm) and the thickness was measured over different areas of surface. For a lapping speed of 5 rpm, a highly uniform surface over a large area ($2{\times}1\;mm^2$) was obtained. Second, optimization of inductive coupled plasma-reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE) was carried out to achieve anisotropy and high etch rate. The dry etching carried out using a gas mixture of SiCl4 and Ar, each having a flow rate of 10 sccm and 40 sccm, respectively with an RF power of 50 W, ICP power of 400 W and chamber pressure of 2 mTorr was the optimum etching condition. Last, the rest of GaAs substrate was successfully removed by highly selective backside wet etching with pH adjusted solution of citric acid and hydrogen peroxide. Citric acid/hydrogen peroxide etching solution having a volume ratio of 5:1 was the best etching condition which provides not only high selectivity of 235:1 between GaAs and AlAs but also good etching profile [3]. The fabricated transmission EAM array have an amplitude modulation of more than 50% at the bias voltage of -9 V and maintains high uniformity of >90% over large area ($2{\times}1\;mm^2$). These results show that the fabricated transmission EAM with substrate removed is an excellent candidate to be used as an optical shutter for HD 3D imaging application.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2013.10a
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• pp.763-764
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• 2013

A three-dimensional image capturing device and its signal processing algorithm and apparatus are presented. Three dimensional information is one of emerging differentiators that provides consumers with more realistic and immersive experiences in user interface, game, 3D-virtual reality, and 3D display. It has the depth information of a scene together with conventional color image so that full-information of real life that human eyes experience can be captured, recorded and reproduced. 20 Mega-Hertz-switching high speed image shutter device for 3D image capturing and its application to system prototype are presented[1,2]. For 3D image capturing, the system utilizes Time-of-Flight (TOF) principle by means of 20MHz high-speed micro-optical image modulator, so called 'optical resonator'. The high speed image modulation is obtained using the electro-optic operation of the multi-layer stacked structure having diffractive mirrors and optical resonance cavity which maximizes the magnitude of optical modulation[3,4]. The optical resonator is specially designed and fabricated realizing low resistance-capacitance cell structures having small RC-time constant. The optical shutter is positioned in front of a standard high resolution CMOS image sensor and modulates the IR image reflected from the object to capture a depth image (Figure 1). Suggested novel optical resonator enables capturing of a full HD depth image with depth accuracy of mm-scale, which is the largest depth image resolution among the-state-of-the-arts, which have been limited up to VGA. The 3D camera prototype realizes color/depth concurrent sensing optical architecture to capture 14Mp color and full HD depth images, simultaneously (Figure 2,3). The resulting high definition color/depth image and its capturing device have crucial impact on 3D business eco-system in IT industry especially as 3D image sensing means in the fields of 3D camera, gesture recognition, user interface, and 3D display. This paper presents MEMS-based optical resonator design, fabrication, 3D camera system prototype and signal processing algorithms.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.303-310
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• 2015

An image-space telecentric lens for an intra-oral 3D scanner was designed and fabricated for dental application. Since a telecentric function can provide the same results regardless of image plane position, it helps to realize a more accurate image for an intra-oral scanner. The performance of the designed lens meets the required properties for HD resolution. In particular, lateral color is corrected within 1 pixel. This system achieves depth of focus of more than 3 mm. For user convenience, the developed system consists of a prism part and an imaging part. Both parts are optimized to reduce the front size and weight of the system. In order to make the parallax sights, parallax angle was determined to be 8 degrees between two optical systems.