Film gate apparatus for a virtual contact color film scanner

Claim 1

Film gate apparatus for a color film virtual contact scanner in which a plurality of scanning arrays, each associated with a selected color to be scanned, are spaced a predetermined distance from a film image plane to respond directly to discrete pixels in the film image without interposition of focussing optics, the film gate apparatus comprising: a generally planar film gate base having a film track on one side with a film gate opening defining a film image plane and on the other side, a site for receiving a scanner assembly, and having a scanning aperture between the receiving site and the film gate opening; a solid-state scanner assembly including a substrate and an array of solid-state image pixel sensors, the sensor array being mounted on the substrate, said substrate being positioned on said receiving site with said sensor array positioned within said scanning aperture at said predetermined distance from the film image plane, the scanner assembly also including sensor array electrical terminals accessible on the opposite side of the substrate from the sensor array; a printed circuit board carrying sensor array control circuits and being positioned adjacent the terminal-accessible side of said substrate, said circuit board having control circuit contact terminals aligned with the sensor array electrical terminals; and clamping means operative to hold the scanner assembly and printed circuit board in place on the film gate base with the contact terminals of the circuit board in electrical contact with the sensor array electrical terminals.