Theia's lenses help capture clear images of car crash testing. The MY23F lens is rugged and can survive impact at 50mph, while providing undistorted images.

Microscope objectives focus light and form images. There are two types: finite and infinite conjugate. Designers consider magnification, numerical aperture (NA), and cost. NA is important but not the only factor in performance.

INSPECTIS’ BGA inspection systems can now be supplied with optional new XM lenses that offer up to 285x screen magnification, compared to the original standard lens with 200x.

Before discussing the trends, let’s lay some groundwork by discussing the market drivers for machine vision that ultimately power the trends.

As technology scales down and the trend towards miniaturization accelerates, how does it affect the design and application of these critical lenses?

Machine vision enables new and exciting advancements in industries and fields of research across multiple disciplines. 

The discipline of machine vision encompasses imaging technologies and methods to perform automatic inspection and analysis in various applications, such as verification, measurement, and process control.

Lenses play a crucial role in the quality of the images produced by a machine vision system since they determine the sharpness of the image on the camera sensor. Lenses can influence image quality in a variety of ways.

Imaging sensors in the machine vision space have traditionally fit into cameras utilizing only a couple of different camera mounts. However, newer sensors are beginning to grow far too large. Lens and camera manufacturers need to collaborate to develop new mounting standards for the new, large sensor formats.

Imaging lenses are critically important components for systems deployed in all types of environments such as factory automation, robotics, and industrial inspection.