Patent ID: 8618468

Claim:
An imaging module for imaging a barcode on a target, comprising: a support having a front; an imaging assembly including a solid-state imager having an array of image sensors on the support, for capturing return light over a field of view at a range of working distances from the barcode on the target along an imaging path; an illuminating assembly including at least one aperture stop and at least one illuminating lens and at least one illumination light source on the support, wherein each of the least one illumination light source is located further from the front of the support than the solid-state imager for directing illumination light through the at least one aperture stop followed by the at least one illuminating lens along a folded illuminating path having a length longer than the imaging path to uniformly illuminate the barcode on the target with the illumination light, the longer length of the folded illuminating path enabling the illuminating assembly to illuminate the barcode on the target with more of the illumination light and enabling the imaging assembly to capture more of the return light for increased imaging performance; wherein the support includes a printed circuit board on which the imager is mounted; wherein the support has a generally planar base, wherein the printed circuit board has an inner surface directly facing the base, and wherein the imager is mounted on the inner surface for capturing the return light in a direction generally perpendicular to the printed circuit board, and wherein the at least one illumination light source is mounted on the inner surface for directing the illumination light in the direction generally perpendicular to the printed circuit board; and wherein the printed circuit board is generally planar and overlies the base in mutual parallelism; and wherein the illuminating assembly includes a plurality of illumination reflectors for folding the illumination light from the illumination light sources in a direction generally parallel to the printed circuit board, and wherein the imaging assembly includes an imaging reflector for folding the captured return light from the barcode on the target in a direction generally perpendicular to the printed circuit board.