Patent Grant
10921548
The present invention relates to a focusing mechanism and an imaging module that include a piezoelectric element and an optical lens.
In recent years, cameras mounted on mobile phones and the like have had a focusing function as a standard. Most of systems for driving the cameras are voice coil motors (hereinafter, abbreviated as VCMs). However, there are problems that a VCM has high power consumption and a low driving speed and it is difficult to reduce the height of the VCM.
Accordingly, focusing mechanisms to which a micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) technology and the like are applied as systems to be used instead of a VCM have been developed to achieve a reduction in size in recent years. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,711,495 discloses a method that uses an electrostatic actuator as a small drive mechanism for moving an optical lens. However, since the drive mechanism disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,711,495 has a complicated structure to output a sufficient amount of displacement with a small size, manufacturing yield, drive durability, and the like become problems.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 8,199,410 discloses a method that is not a method of performing focusing by moving an optical lens and uses a flexible material, such as a polymer, as the material of a lens and changes a focal length by deforming the lens. However, since the aberration of the lens deteriorates and optical characteristics deteriorate in this method, the quality of a taken image cannot help being compromised.
Furthermore, JP2013-68875A and JP2011-141438A disclose methods that use a liquid material for a drive system or a lens itself and deform the lens. However, a mechanism becomes complicated and it is expected that the quality of a photographic image is also inferior to a case in which a fixed optical lens is used.
Moreover, JP2010-210968A discloses an optical module that drives an optical lens by a piezoelectric film directly formed along the outer periphery of the optical lens.
However, since the piezoelectric film is directly formed along the outer periphery of an optical element in the optical module disclosed in JP2010-210968A, the optical element is strongly restrained by the piezoelectric film. For this reason, there is a problem that it is difficult to output a large amount of displacement.
The invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned circumferences, and an object of the invention is to provide a focusing mechanism that can move an optical lens by a large amount of displacement with a simple structure and can be driven at a high speed and with low power consumption.
Further, an object of the invention is to provide an imaging module that can be driven at a high speed and with low power consumption by a simple structure without deteriorating image quality.
A focusing mechanism of the invention comprises: a driving source in which three or more cantilever-like piezoelectric actuators are radially arranged; and an optical lens unit that consists of an outer frame, an optical lens, a lens holder provided around the optical lens and holding the optical lens, and an elastic body connecting the lens holder to the outer frame and elongating and contracting in a radial direction of the optical lens. Surfaces of driving distal ends of the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuators, which are perpendicular to a direction of an optical axis of the optical lens, are in contact with the lens holder, and the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuators move the optical lens in the direction of the optical axis of the optical lens by the drive of the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuators to perform focusing.
It is preferable that the surface of each cantilever-like piezoelectric actuator perpendicular to a driving direction of the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuator is covered with a material having a coefficient of static friction of 0.5 or less.
It is preferable that the focusing mechanism further comprises a projection portion provided on the surface of each cantilever-like piezoelectric actuator perpendicular to the driving direction of the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuator and the projection portions are in contact with the lens holder.
The surface of the projection portion may be covered with a material having a coefficient of static friction of 0.5 or less.
The three or more cantilever-like piezoelectric actuators may be spirally and radially arranged.
It is preferable that each cantilever-like piezoelectric actuator is made of an isotropic material.
It is preferable that the isotropic material is polysilicon.
It is preferable that each cantilever-like piezoelectric actuator is formed of a thin film.
It is preferable that the elastic body is a bellows-like nitride film.
An imaging module of the invention comprises the focusing mechanism of the invention.
Here, “driving distal end of the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuator” means the distal end of the actuator where the maximum amount of displacement is obtained and a predetermined region that is positioned between the distal end and a predetermined position. The predetermined region is determined depending on the amount of displacement of the actuator, the structure of the lens holder, and the like.
According to the focusing mechanism of the invention, an optical lens can be moved by a large amount of displacement with a simple structure and the focusing mechanism can be driven at a high speed and with low power consumption.
Further, according to the imaging module of the invention, the imaging module can be driven at a high speed and with low power consumption by a simple structure without deteriorating image quality.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the following figures, wherein:
(a) to (m) of
(a) to (f) of
The invention will be described in detail below.
[Focusing Mechanism]
First, an embodiment of a focusing mechanism of the invention will be described.
As shown in
Surfaces 25 of driving distal ends 24 of the actuators 21, which are perpendicular to the direction of an optical axis of the optical lens, are in contact with the lens holder 33, and the actuators 21 move the optical lens 36 in the direction A of the optical axis of the optical lens 36 by the drive of the actuators 21 to perform focusing.
As shown in
(Driving Source)
Next, the driving source will be described in more detail.
As shown in
A form in which the projection portions 18 are provided has been described in this embodiment, but the projection portions may not be formed. In this case, it is preferable that a material having a coefficient of static friction of 0.5 or less is applied to the surface 25 (see
(Optical Lens Unit)
Next, the optical lens unit will be described in more detail.
As shown in
As shown in
The elastic body 34 is formed of, for example, a silicon nitride film that is formed integrally with the lens holder 33 and the outer frame 35 and has a bellows structure. A bellows structure using a microfabrication technology has been used as the elastic body in this embodiment. However, for example, a plurality of springs, which are produced using an injection molding technology, may be used as the elastic body. In this case, the elastic body may not be formed on the entire circumference of the optical lens and a plurality of elastic bodies may be radially arranged.
(Method of Producing Driving Source)
Next, a method of manufacturing the driving source 10 will be described. (a) to (m) of
As shown in (a) of
After that, thermal oxide films (oxide silicon) 12 and 13 are formed on the surface and back of the silicon substrate 11 as shown in (b) of
Then, as shown in (c) of
It is preferable that crystalline silicon is avoided and isotropic materials, such as polysilicon, amorphous silicon, and amorphous silicon carbide, are used as the main material of the actuator 21. Since crystalline silicon is an anisotropic material, a variation occurs in the stiffness of the actuator in a case in which cantilever-like piezoelectric actuators formed of radially arranged actuators are produced. For this reason, since a difference occurs between the actuators in the amount of displacement of the optical lens at the time of driving even though the same voltage is applied to all the actuators, the lens cannot be moved in parallel with a plane perpendicular to the direction of the optical axis. Accordingly, it is preferable that an isotropic material, such as polysilicon, is used as the main material of the actuator 21.
After that, a lower electrode 15, a ferroelectric thin film 16, and an upper electrode 17 are sequentially formed on the polysilicon film 14 by a sputtering method (see (d), (e), and (f) of
It is preferable that one or two or more perovskite oxides expressed by the composition formula (1) are used for the ferroelectric thin film 16.
Pbx(Zry,Tiz,Mb-y-z)Oc (1)
In the formula, M includes at least one element selected from a group consisting of V, Nb, Ta, Sb, Cr, Mo, W, Mn, Mg, Sc, Co, Cu, In, Sn, Ga, Zn, Cd, Fe, Ni, Hf, and Al. x, y, and z satisfies the relationships of “0<y<b”, “0<z<b”, and “0≤b-y-z”.
Further, “x:b:c=1:1:3” is a standard, but these molar ratios may be out of reference molar ratios in a range from which a perovskite structure is taken.
A perovskite oxide, which can be expressed by the composition formula (1), includes Nb as M of the composition formula, and a molar ratio of Nb/(Zr+Ti+M) may be in the range of 0.10 to 0.20 and it is more preferable that a molar ratio of Nb/(Zr+Ti+M) is in the range of 0.10 to 0.15.
Examples of a preferred method of forming the ferroelectric thin film 16 include vapor growth methods, such as a sputtering method, a plasma CVD method, a metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method, a burning-quenching etching method, an annealing-etching method, and a thermal spraying-quenching method. A sputtering method is particularly preferred among these methods.
Examples of materials of the lower and upper electrodes 15 and 17 are not particularly limited, and include metals or metal oxides, such as Au, Pt, Ir, Ti, IrO2, RuO2, LaNiO3, SrRuO3, an indium tin oxide (ITO), and TiN, and combinations thereof.
The thickness of each of the lower and upper electrodes 15 and 17 is not particularly limited, and is, for example, about 200 nm. The thickness of the ferroelectric thin film 16 is not particularly limited, is usually 1 μm or more, and is in the range of, for example, 1 μm to 5 μm. It is preferable that the thickness of the ferroelectric thin film 16 is 3 μm or more.
After that, as shown in (g) of
Examples of the material having a coefficient of static friction of 0.5 or less may include a fluorine resin, such as Teflon (registered trademark. Hereinafter, this will be omitted), graphite, molybdenum disulfide, diamond-like carbon (DLC), polyethylene, polystyrene, and the like.
In this specification, a coefficient of static friction is a value that is measured by a measurement method based on ISO 8295.
Then, lithography for patterning the actuators 21 is performed, and the upper electrode 17, the ferroelectric thin film 16, the lower electrode 15, and the polysilicon film 14 are etched by dry etching (see (h) and (i) of
After that, as shown in (j) of
Then, lithography for performing silicon depth etching is performed from the back, the thermal oxide film 12 is removed by wet etching, and the deep-digging of the silicon substrate 11 is performed by Bosch process-dry etching. The thermal oxide film 13 serves as an etching stop layer (see (k) and (l) of
After that, as shown in (m) of
Lastly, a film made of Teflon is formed on the surface of each actuator by sputtering to reduce a coefficient of friction. In a case in which the projection portion is covered with a material having a coefficient of static friction of 0.5 or less, it is preferable in terms of abrasion resistance and the prevention of the peeling of the film caused by residual stress that the thickness of the film formed by sputtering is in the range of 40 nm to 500 nm.
Here, the length of the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuator means the length of a region of the actuator 21, which is not supported by the support 22, in the direction of a long side to the driving distal end face of the actuator from the end portion of the support. In this embodiment, the length of the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuator means a distance L1 between an end portion 26 of the support 22 and a distal end face 23 of the actuator 21 as shown in (m) of
A form in which 32 rectangular actuators 21 having the same length and the same shape are radially arranged has been described in regard to the driving source 10 of the embodiment, but the number of the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuators 21 having the same length and the same shape may be 3 or more and it is preferable that the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuators 21 are arranged at regular intervals. In terms of moving the optical lens in the direction of the optical axis in parallel with a high accuracy, the number of the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuators 21 having the same length and the same shape is preferably in the range of 4 to 150 and is more preferably in the range of 8 to 100.
In a case in which a plurality of cantilever-like piezoelectric actuators having different lengths are arranged, the amounts of displacement of the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuators are different from each other. For this reason, it is preferable that each actuator is designed to move the optical lens as an object to be moved by the drive of the actuators in parallel with the direction of the optical axis in a case in which all the actuators are driven.
Further, a shape in which the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuators are arranged may be a shape in which the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuators are radially arranged around the center of a circle as in this embodiment, and may be a shape in which the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuators are spirally and radially arranged (the case of Example 2 to be described later). The actuators may be arranged so that the driving distal ends of the plurality of actuators form a circle to hold the circular optical lens.
(Method of Producing Optical Lens Unit)
Next, a method of manufacturing the optical lens unit 30 will be described. The optical lens unit 30 can be produced using an ordinary lithography technology. (a) to (f) of
As shown in (a) of
Glass, stainless steel, yttrium-stabilized zirconia, alumina, sapphire, silicon carbide, and the like can be used other than silicon for the substrate.
Further, it is preferable that the thickness of the silicon substrate 31 is in the range of, for example, about 300 μm to 800 μm.
After that, as shown in (b) of
Then, a back portion of the silicon substrate 31 of a region 31b where the elastic body 34 is to be formed and a back portion of the silicon substrate 31 of a region 31c where the optical lens 36 is to be disposed are removed by dry etching in two stages (see (c) and (d) of
In addition, as shown in (e) of
(Method of Producing Focusing Mechanism)
The lens holder 33 of the optical lens unit 30 is disposed so as to be in contact with the projection portions 18 of the driving source 10 produced as described above, and the outer frame 35 of the optical lens unit is bonded to the actuator 21 by an adhesive. It is preferable that an epoxy-based die-bond resin is used as the adhesive.
[Imaging Module]
Next, an embodiment of an imaging module using the focusing mechanism of the invention will be described.
As shown in
The optical lens 36 of the optical lens unit 30 is moved in the direction A of the optical axis by the drive of the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuators 21 and functions as a focusing lens. An object to be imaged, which is positioned at any distance, is subjected to focusing by the optical lens 36, which functions as a focusing lens, and the fixed lens group 52, and an optical image is formed on the imaging element 53.
Since the imaging module including the focusing mechanism of the invention uses the cantilever-like piezoelectric actuators each of which is formed of a thin film as described above, the imaging module can achieve a reduction in size and low power consumption. In addition, since the driving source and the optical lens are in point contact with each other without being fixed to each other and the optical lens is supported by the elastic body, the optical lens can be quickly moved in the direction of the optical axis. As described above, the imaging module including the focusing mechanism of the invention can be driven at a high speed and with low power consumption without deteriorating image quality.
A driving source in which the actuators are radially arranged has been described as the driving source of the focusing mechanism of the embodiment, but a driving source in which actuators are spirally and radially arranged may be used other than this driving source.
As shown in
Here, the length of the actuator 61, which is spirally and radially arranged as described above, is defined as the length of a straight line L2 connecting the center L of the distal end face 63 of the actuator 61 to the center M of the end portion of the actuator 61, which is in contact with the support 62, as shown in
Since the actuators are formed in this shape and are arranged in this way, a long piezoelectric element can be formed in a narrow region and a large amount of displacement can be obtained without an increase in the size of the entire focusing mechanism (without a reduction in the size of the optical lens).
A driving source and an optical lens unit were produced under the following conditions by the producing method described in the embodiment, and the driving source and the optical lens unit were bonded to each other by an adhesive to produce the focusing mechanism.
(Driving Source)
Silicon substrate: diameter of 150 mm and thickness of 350 μm
Thermal oxide film: thickness of 0.5 μm
Polysilicon film: thickness of 10 μm
Lower electrode: Ti (thickness of 20 nm)/Ir (thickness of 100 nm)
Upper electrode: Ir (thickness of 100 nm)
Piezoelectric film: lead zirconate titanate (PZT in which Nb is added to B-site by 12%), thickness of 3 μm
Length L1 of cantilever-like piezoelectric actuator: 1 mm
Material of projection portion: UV curable low-viscosity urethane acrylate resin
Material covering projection portion: Teflon (coefficient of static friction of 0.1)
(Optical Lens Unit)
Silicon substrate: diameter of 150 mm and thickness of 350 μm
Silicon nitride film: 1 μm
Size of optical lens: diameter of 2.5 mm
A focusing mechanism of Example 2 is the same as that of Example 1 except that the driving source 60 is used.
The length L2 of a cantilever-like piezoelectric actuator 61 of a driving source of Example 2 was set to 2 mm. The other structures of the driving source are the same as those of the Example 1.
(Evaluation)
A voltage in the range of 0 V to 30 V was applied to the focusing mechanism produced as described above and the amount of displacement of the optical lens in the direction of the optical axis of the optical lens was measured by the following measurement method.
Method of measuring the amount of displacement of lens
A difference between the height of the center of the lens 36 and the height of the outer frame 35 was statically measured at each applied voltage by a white-light-interference shape measuring device and a value measured at a voltage of 0 V was set to 0.
The measurement results of Examples 1 and 2 are shown in
As shown in
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-065306 | Mar 2016 | JP | national |
The present application is a Continuation of PCT International Application No. PCT/JP2017/011477 filed on Mar. 22, 2017, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) to Japanese Patent Application No. 2016-065306 filed on Mar. 29, 2016. Each of the above applications is hereby expressly incorporated by reference, in its entirety, into the present application.
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| Number | Date | Country |
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| 2004-001209 | Jan 2004 | JP |
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| Entry |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20180364449 A1 | Dec 2018 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/JP2017/011477 | Mar 2017 | US |
| Child | 16116422 | US |
