Patent ID: 8675281

Claim:
A lens unit for focusing light from an object plane onto an image plane, the lens unit comprising: a first lens array including a plurality of lenses with mutually substantially parallel optical axes, the lenses in the first lens array being aligned in a first direction substantially orthogonal to their optical axes, the optical axes extending in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, the first and second directions both being orthogonal to a third direction; and a second lens array including a plurality of lenses with mutually substantially parallel optical axes, the lenses in the second lens array being aligned in the first direction, the optical axes of the lenses in the second lens array coinciding with the optical axes of corresponding ones of the lenses in the first lens array; wherein in each of a plurality of pairs of lenses including a first lens in the first lens array and a second lens in the second lens array with mutually coincident optical axes, the first lens collimates incident light rays originating from the object plane and propagating in a first plane, and the second lens focuses the collimated light rays onto the image plane, the first plane substantially including the optical axes of the first lens and the second lens and being parallel to the third direction, the first direction being parallel to a second plane substantially including the optical axes of the first lens and the second lens.