Abstract:
The present invention provides an optical sensor device for equally receiving light signals. The optical sensor device is composed of several optical sensor elements. The whole object of using the optical sensor elements to equally receive light signals depends on the formation of the optical sensor elements at an inclined plane on both sides of a substrate. Or, to make a central beaming pathway by equally increasing the height on both sides of the substrate.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    This invention generally relates to the field of an optical sensor device. More particularly, the present invention relates to an optical sensor device, wherein the optical sensor device provides an angle or/and the substrate with different height regions.  
           [0003]    2. Description of the Prior Art  
           [0004]    The documents scanned by a general scanning system include color or monochrome photographs, artwork, and composed pages of text and graphics. The actual graphic image content of the scanned original document is referred to as an “original”.  
           [0005]    In the use of a common scanner for scanning, an original on an opaque substrate is placed with the surface containing the original facing down on a flat transparent reference surface; the opaque substrate is typically glass. The original document is fixed on the surface, hereinafter referred to as a “scan line” is illuminated from below, and the light reflected from the scan line is directed through an optical system to form an image of the scan line on an optical sensor device, and converts the optical signal to an electronic representation of the scan line. When the desired scan line of the original is scanned, the optical sensor device along a direction hereinafter referred to as the “scanning axis” to scan the next line contiguously.  
           [0006]    [0006]FIG. 1 illustrates the relation of a well-known optical sensor device, receiving light from various receiving angles. According to FIG. 1 the length from point A to A′ is labeled as D a , and the length from point B to B′ is labeled as D b , and length from point C to C′ is labeled as D c . FIG. 2 shows a side view of a well-know optical sensor device  125 , the optical sensor device  125  is formed by a plurality of optical sensor elements  127 , and is arranged in a straight line.  
           [0007]    When a light source illuminates the original  100 , the beam  105 , beam  110  and beam  115  are reflected or transmitted from the original  100 . The beam  105  will project upon the surface of the optical sensor device  125  with angle θ A , the beam  110  will also project upon the surface of the optical sensor device  125  with the angle θ B , and the beam  115  will project upon the surface of the optical sensor device  125  with the angle θ c . As mentioned above, the optical sensor device  125  is used to receive the light signal. Therefore, whether each charged-coupled device can receive reflected light with a constant average is important to generate a high quality image.  
           [0008]    However, in a general scanning system of the prior art, the D a  and D c  is greater than D b , the angle θ A , angle θ c  is less than angle θ B , as shown in FIG. 1. The chart  130  is used to represent the relation between the electronic representation and the included angle. The Y-axis of the chart  130  represents the electronic representation, and the X-axis of the chart  130  represents the received angle. As illustrated in chart  130 , the reflection light  110  induces better electronic representation on the optical sensor device  125  than reflection light  105  and reflection light  115 .  
           [0009]    Furthermore, the evaluation data of MTF (modulation transfer function) of reflected light  110  is also better than reflected light  105  and reflected light  115 . The MTF (modulation transfer function), a function that expresses the ability of an optical or electronic device to transfer signals faithfully as a function of the spatial or temporal frequency of the signal and is commonly known as a modulation transfer function (MTF). The MTF is the ratio of the percentage modulation of a sinusoidal signal leaving to that entering the device over the range of frequencies of interest.  
           [0010]    Accordingly, it is necessary to provide an optical sensor device to equally receive a light signal through the optical sensor elements to obtain the light signals correct intensity.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0011]    In accordance with the background of the foregoing invention, and the disadvantages in the prior art, the present invention provides an optical sensor device, to equally receive a light signal through the optical sensor elements to obtain the light signals correct intensity.  
           [0012]    Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to make the optical sensor elements essentially receive a light signal at the same level.  
           [0013]    Another object of the present invention is to receive a light signal with the optical sensor elements at different heights.  
           [0014]    Another object of the present invention is to receive light signals with the optical sensor elements at different angles.  
           [0015]    According to the objects mentioned above, the present invention provides an optical sensor device in a scanning system to receive light signals. The optical sensor device is composed of several optical sensor elements. The whole object of using the optical sensor elements to equally receive light signals depends on the formation of the optical sensor elements at an inclined plane on both sides of a substrate. Or, to make a central beaming pathway by equally increasing the height on both sides of the substrate. . Furthermore, another embodiment of the present invention combines two foregoing embodiments to obtain an optical sensor device that can be used to equally receive light signals. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0016]    The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference of the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 1 illustrates the correlation of a light pathway and the angle of inclination when receiving light by using a well-known optical sensor device.  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 2 illustrates a side view of a well-known optical sensor device.  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 3 illustrates a sectional view of an optical sensor device in the first preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 4 illustrates a sectional view of an optical sensor device in the second preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 5 illustrates a sectional view of an optical sensor device in the third preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0022]    Some sample embodiments of the invention will now be described in greater detail. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the present invention can be practiced in a wide range of other embodiments besides those explicitly described, and the scope of the present invention is expressly not limited except as specified in the accompanying claims.  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 3 illustrates a sectional view of an optical sensor device in the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, and it is used as an optical sensor device in a scanning system (for example, a optical scanning apparatus). As shown, an optical sensor device  300  is comprised of several optical sensor elements  304 A,  304 B,  304 C, which lie on the surface of a substrate  301 , wherein each of the optical sensor elements  304 A,  304 B,  304 C can be a CCD (charged-coupled device) element, or CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor), or any other optical sensor.  
         [0024]    As shown in FIG. 3, in this embodiment, the bottom surface  306  of the substrate  301  is plane, the optical sensor elements  304 A,  304 B,  304 C lie on the surface  308  (or top) of a substrate  301 . In this embodiment, the surface  308  of the substrate  301  is an approaching a plane (it is different from other embodiments with various heights, as shown in FIG. 3, 4), thus, the optical sensor elements  304 A,  304 B and  304 C are essentially on the same plane (the surface  308 ).  
         [0025]    The optical sensor element  304 A on the central substrate  301  is arranged in a series on the same plane of the surface  308 , thus, the optical sensor element  304 A is parallel with the bottom surface  306 . In regards to optical sensor elements  304 B,  304 C, they are adhered at both sides of substrate  301 , with a incline on surface  308 , in another word, the surfaces  310 B,  310 C of the optical sensor elements  304 B,  304 C have angles greater than zero P, Q, between the bottom surface  306 . In this embodiment, the angles P, Q are fixed, but in fact, each optical sensor element  304 B,  304 C can adjust the angles P, Q for surfaces  310 A,  310 B,  310 C thus creating the preferred angle to receive a light signal.  
         [0026]    In accordance with the structure of the first preferred embodiment, the optical sensor elements  304 A,  304 B and  304 C equally receive the light signal. The light from light source  302  (only shown in the figure are light signals  390 ,  391 ,  392 ) is essentially vertical to the optical sensor elements  304 A,  304 B, and  304 C. Thus, optical sensor elements  304 B and  304 C have been enhanced to equally receive the light signal on both sides. The foregoing light source  302  can be a reflection or transmission.  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 4 illustrates a sectional view of an optical sensor device in the second preferred embodiment of the present invention; it is used as an optical sensor device in a scanning system (for example, a optical scanning apparatus). As shown in FIG. 4, an optical sensor device  400  is comprised of several optical sensor elements  404 A- 404 G, which are adhered on the surface of a substrate  401 , wherein each of the optical sensor elements  404 A- 404 G can be a CCD (charged-coupled device) element, or CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor), or any other optical sensor.  
         [0028]    As shown in FIG. 4, in this embodiment, the surface of the substrate  401  is divided in to several area surfaces  408 A- 408 G, each area surface is at a different height. In this embodiment, both sides of the surface are formed to a ladder-shaped, the height around the outside surface is higher than the level of the central surface, for example, the height of area surface  408 C is higher than the level of area surface  408 B. The optical sensor elements  404 A- 404 G respectively adhere to the area surface  408 A- 408 G (or top) of substrate  401 .  
         [0029]    The optical sensor element  404 A on the central area  408 A of the substrate  401  is arranged in a series on the same plane of the surface area  408 A, thus, the optical sensor element  404 A is essentially parallel with the bottom surface  406 . In regards to the optical sensor elements  404 B- 404 G, they are also arranged in a series on the surface area  408 B- 408 G respectively.  
         [0030]    In accordance with the structure of the second preferred embodiment, the light pathways from light source  402  (only shown the light signal  490 ,  491 ,  492  in the figure) are essentially equal, thus, the optical sensor elements  404 A- 404 G equally receive the light signal. The foregoing light source  402  can be a reflection or transmission.  
         [0031]    [0031]FIG. 5 illustrates a sectional view of an optical sensor device in the third preferred embodiment of the present invention; it is used as an optical sensor device in a scanning system (for example, an optical scanning apparatus). This preferred embodiment mainly combines the first embodiment (FIG. 3); therein the optical sensor elements are provided at angles, and the second embodiment (FIG. 4); therein the optical sensor elements are provided in areas at various levels of height. Thus, it forms an optical sensor device with the features of having areas at various levels of height and angles.  
         [0032]    As shown in FIG. 5, an optical sensor device  500  is comprised of several optical sensor elements  504 A,  504 B and  504 C, which are adhered on the surface of a substrate  501 , the optical sensor elements  504 A,  504 B and  504 C can be CCD (charged-coupled device) elements, or CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor), or any other optical sensors.  
         [0033]    As shown in FIG. 5, in this embodiment, the surface of the substrate  501  is divided into several area surfaces  508 A- 508 C (in this embodiment, it is divided to three area surface), each area surface level is at a different height. In this embodiment, the both sides of surface area  508 B,  508 C have an angle of inclination R, which is greater than zero between the bottom surface  506 , with the result that form an inner curved surface  508 B or  508 C. The optical sensor elements  504 A- 504 C are adhered in a series on the surface area  508 A- 508 C of the substrate  501  respectively.  
         [0034]    The optical sensor element  504 A on the central area  508 A of the substrate  501  is arranged in a series on the same plane of the surface area  508 A, thus, the optical sensor element  504 A is essentially parallel with the bottom surface  506 . In regards to optical sensor elements  504 B and  504 C, they are also arranged in a series on the respective surface area  508 B and  508 C.  
         [0035]    In accordance with the structure of the third preferred embodiment, the light pathways from light source  502  (only shown the light signal  590 ,  591 ,  592  in the figure) are essentially equal and essentially vertical with the optical sensor elements  504 A,  504 B, and  504 C. Thus, the optical sensor elements  504 A- 504 C on average, equally receive the light signal as a result of the enhancement of optical sensor elements  504 B,  504 C. The foregoing light source  402  can be a reflection or transmission.  
         [0036]    As mentioned above, although, the central area surface  508 A is plane in this third preferred embodiment, it can be modified to make the area surfaces  508 A- 508 C to form a curved surface.  
         [0037]    Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made without departing from what is intended to be limited solely by the appended claims.