Patent ID: 7301138

Claim:
An imaging system comprising: a field stop located at a first image plane for limiting an incident light ray bundle passing through an aperture thereof; a polarization discriminating element adapted to separate the incident light ray bundle into a first ray bundle having a first polarization traveling in a first direction and a second ray bundle having a second polarization traveling in a second direction; and an image detector located at a second image plane to receive the first ray bundle and the second ray bundle such that the first ray bundle forms a first image at a first region of the image detector and the second ray bundle forming a second image at a second region the image detector, wherein the first image and the second image are laterally displaced from each other at the second image plane, and wherein the field stop limits a size of the incident light ray bundle at the first image plane such that a polarization filter is not required after the polarization discriminating element to prevent crosstalk.