CAMERA MODULE

Abstract

A camera module includes a lens unit which constitutes an optical system of the camera module; a holder which houses the lens unit and is displaceable along an optical axis direction of the lens unit; a coil provided on the holder; a yoke and magnets provided on the yoke for providing a magnetic field to the coil; a flexible printed circuit board to which the lead wires are connected for supplying an electrical current to the lead wires, the flexible printed circuit board having an insulating sheet portion and a pattern portion; a leaf spring for supporting the holder so that the holder is displaceable along an optical axis direction of the lens unit; a base for supporting the holder when no electrical current is supplied to the coil; and an imaging element provided below the lens unit. In the camera module the leaf spring biases the holder toward the base when no electrical current is supplied to the coil, the holder has a lower cylindrical end portion which is supported by the base, and the base has a support member which supports the lower cylindrical end portion of the holder and a protruding height adjusting mechanism which is capable of adjusting a protruding height thereof from the base.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of an actuator assembly 1 of a camera module of an embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective sectional view of a part of the actuator assembly 1 of the camera module shown in FIG. 1 and shows a positional relationship between a holder 8, a base 12 and a support member 13 of the actuator assembly 1

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a part of the actuator assembly 1 of the camera module shown in FIG. 1 and shows a positional relationship between the holder 8, the base 12 and the support member 13 of the actuator assembly 1.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of an actuator assembly 100 of a conventional camera module.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawing.

The camera module according to the embodiment comprises: a lens unit (not shown) which constitutes an optical system of the camera module; a holder 8 which houses the lens unit and is displaceable along an optical axis direction of the lens unit and has a cylindrical shape having upper and lower cylindrical end portions; a coil 7 provided on the holder 8; a yoke 5 and magnets 6 provided on the yoke 5 for providing a magnetic field to the coil 7; upper and lower leaf springs 4, 10 for supporting the holder 8 so that the holder 8 is displaceable along an optical axis direction of the lens unit; a base 12 for supporting the holder 8 when no electrical current is supplied to the coil 7; and an imaging element (not shown) provided below the lens unit. In this camera module, the upper and lower leaf springs 4, 10 bias the holder 8 toward the base 12 when no electrical current is supplied to the coil 7, the holder 8 has a lower cylindrical end portion 8a which is supported by the base 12, and the base 12 has a support member 13 which supports the lower cylindrical end portion 8a of the holder 8 and protruding height adjusting means in the form of a male thread 13a which is capable of adjusting a protruding height thereof from the base 12.

Hereinbelow, with reference to FIG. 1, description is made with regard to an actuator assembly 1 of the camera module of the embodiment according to the present invention. In this regard, it is to be noted that an imaging element (not shown in the drawing) is disposed below a base 12.

The holder 8 that houses the barrel (not shown) holding the lens unit is provided in a space defined between a cover 2 and the base 12 so that the holder 8 is displaceable in a direction of an optical axis of the lens unit.

The holder 8 is a cylindrical member made of a synthetic resin and the coil 7 is provided around the holder 8. An inner annular portion 4b of the upper leaf spring 4 is attached the upper cylindrical end portion 8a of the holder 8 and an inner annular portion 10b of the lower leaf spring 10 is attached to the lower cylindrical end portion of the holder 8, respectively. Further, the outer annular portion 4a of the upper leaf spring 4 is attached to a top surface of the yoke 5 provided on the base 12 and the outer annular portion 10a of the lower leaf spring 10 is attached to a lower end portion of the yoke 5 through an annular plate 19 (which will be described below in more detail). Furthermore, on the upper surface of the inner annular portion 4b of the upper spring 4 which is attached to the upper cylindrical end portion of the holder 8, a stopper 3 is attached using an adhesive. This stopper 3 is provided for restricting upwardly excessive displacement of the holder 8 by the abutment with the bottom surface of the cover 2 when the holder 8 is largely displaced.

Each of the upper and lower leaf springs 4, 10 is formed from a thin metal plate made of beryllium copper through a punching process, and has the ring-shaped outer annular portion 4a, 10a and the ring-shaped inner annular portion 4b, 10b which is concentrically provided inside the outer annular portion 4a, 10a through an annular spacing. The inner annular portion 4b, 10b is displaceably supported by the outer annular portion 4a, 10a through the bridge portions 4c, 10c. Each of the bridge portions 4c, 10c has an elongated arc-shape which extends along the inner periphery of the outer annular portion 4a, 10a and the outer periphery of the inner annular portion 4b, 10b through a predetermined angle. By resilient deformation of the respective three bridge portions 4c and 10c, the holder 8 can be displaced in a direction of an optical axis of the lens unit.

The plurality of magnets 6 are bonded to the inner surface of the yoke 5 so as to produce a magnetic field. Further, the coil 7 is provided around an outer periphery of the holder 8 so that the coil 7 is disposed in the magnetic field generated by the magnets 6 and the yoke 5. The yoke 7 has an axial bore 5a for receiving the holder 8. The holder 8 can be displaced through the axial bore 5a in a direction of an optical axis of the lens unit by supplying an electrical current to the coil 7. Further, the annular plate 9 made of a magnetic metal material is provided between the lower leaf spring 10 and the bottom surface of the yoke 5 for reducing leakage of magnetic fluxes from the magnets 6. Furthermore, the component denoted by the reference numeral 12 is a flexible printed circuit board for supplying an electrical current to the coil 7.

The base 12 is a molded member made of a synthetic resin, and a circular opening 12a is formed in the center portion thereof.

FIG. 3 shows a positional relationship between the holder 8, the base 12 and the support member 13 in a state that no electrical current is supplied to the coil 7. As shown in FIG. 3, an upper end part 13b of the support member 13 supports the lower cylindrical end portion 8a of the holder 8 so as to push up it upwardly. Namely, in the state shown in FIG. 3, the bridge portions 4c of the upper leaf spring 4 and the bridge portions 10c of the lower leaf spring 10 are deformed in accordance with the amount of the displacement of the holder 8 which is pushed up by the support member 13, so that the holder 8 is biased toward the base 12 by the restoring force (biasing force) of the deformed bridge portions 4c and 10c. When no electrical current is supplied to the coil 7, the holder 8 is biased toward the base 12 due to the biasing force of the deformed bridge portions 4c and 10c, so that the holder 8 is supported on and pushed against the upper end 13a of the support member 13. The reason why the holder 8 is biased toward the base 12 by the upper leaf spring 4 and the lower leaf spring 10 when no electrical current is supplied to the coil 7 is to realize an optimum initial responsibility of the holder 8 when supply of an electrical current to the coil 7 is started to thereby make it possible to displace the holder 8 toward the cover 2 (upwardly in FIG. 1) smoothly.

As described above, a male thread 13a is formed on an outer peripheral surface of the support member 13. On the other hand, on the inner peripheral surface of the opening 12a of the base, there is formed a female thread 12b so as to be engageable with the male thread 13a of the support member 13. The male thread 13a of the support member 13 and the female thread 12b of the base 12 constitute the protruding height adjustable means of the present invention. With this structure, by rotating the support member 13 in a state that the male thread 13a is engaged with the female thread 12a of the base 12, the protruding height of the support member from the base 12 can be freely adjusted. By constructing the support member 13 so that the protruding height of the support member 12 from the base 12 can be adjusted in this way, it is possible to adjust an amount of displacement of the holder 8 which is pushed up by the support member 13 even in the case where no electrical current is supplied to the coil 7. In this regard, it is to be noted that it is preferred that, after the amount of the displacement of the holder 8 has been adjusted by rotating the support member 13 with respect to the base 12, portions of the support member 13 are bonded to the base 12 so that they cannot be rotated further.

According to the camera module of the present invention having the above structure, by adjusting the threading amount of the male thread 13a of the support member 13 which supports the lower cylindrical end portion 8a of the holder 8 with respect to the female thread 12b of the base 12, it is possible to adjust the protruding height of the support member 13 from the base, and therefore it is possible to adjust the amount of the displacement of the holder 8. By adjusting the amount of the displacement of the holder 8, it is possible to bias the holder 8 toward the base 12 with an appropriate biasing force even in the case where the biasing force of the deformed bridge portions 4c and 10c is larger or smaller than a predetermined biasing force due to poor assembly precision or variations in the spring characteristics of the bridge portions 4c and 10c. Therefore, the holder 8 can be stably displaced in response to the amount of the electrical current supplied to the coil 7, so that it is possible to control the displacement of the holder 8 accurately and therefore it is also possible for the camera module to exhibit its predetermined performance.

Further, since the adjustment of the protruding height of the support member 13 with respect to the base 12 can be carried out by merely rotating the support member 13 in a state that the male thread 13a of the support member 13 is engaged with the female thread 12a of the base 12, the adjustment can be carried out easily and quickly.

Finally, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the preferred embodiments described hereinabove and, needless to say, a variety of modifications or variations may be made without departing from the scope of the invention defined in the following claims.Further, it is also to be understood that the present disclosure relates to subject matter contained in Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-265160 (filed on Sep. 28, 2006) which is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Claims

1. A camera module, comprising: a lens unit which constitutes an optical system of the camera module;a holder which houses the lens unit and is displaceable along an optical axis direction of the lens unit;a coil provided on the holder;a yoke and magnets provided on the yoke for providing a magnetic field to the coil;a leaf spring for supporting the holder so that the holder is displaceable along an optical axis direction of the lens unit;a base for supporting the holder when no electrical current is supplied to the coil; andan imaging element provided below the lens unit,wherein the leaf spring biases the holder toward the base when no electrical current is supplied to the coil, the holder has a lower cylindrical end portion which is supported by the base, and the base has a support member which supports the lower cylindrical end portion of the holder and a protruding height adjusting means which is capable of adjusting a protruding height of the support member from the base.

2. The camera module as claimed in claim 1, wherein the support member is a ring-shaped member having an outer periphery surface, the protruding height adjusting means includes a male thread formed on the outer periphery of the support member and a female thread formed on the base so as to be engageable with the male thread formed on the outer periphery of the support member.