CN114518642A

CN114518642A - Linear TOF camera module, manufacturing method thereof and electronic equipment

Info

Publication number: CN114518642A
Application number: CN202011308466.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 卢梦哲; 杜亚凤
Original assignee: Yuyao Sunny Optical Intelligence Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Yuyao Sunny Optical Intelligence Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-11-20
Filing date: 2020-11-20
Publication date: 2022-05-20
Anticipated expiration: 2040-11-20
Also published as: CN114518642B

Abstract

Provided are a linear TOF camera module, a manufacturing method thereof and an electronic device. The linear TOF camera module comprises an assembling bracket, a light source transmitting module and a photosensitive receiving module. The light source emission module is arranged on the assembly bracket, and the horizontal emission field angle of the light source emission module is larger than the vertical emission field angle of the light source emission module and is used for emitting linear light beams. The photosensitive receiving module is correspondingly arranged on the assembling support and comprises a photosensitive assembly and a linear lens which is correspondingly arranged on a photosensitive path of the photosensitive assembly. The linear lens comprises at least one linear lens, wherein the length of a horizontal center line of the cross section of each linear lens is larger than that of a vertical center line of the cross section of each linear lens, and the horizontal center line of each linear lens corresponds to the horizontal emission field of the light source emission module, so that the reflected linear light beams are converged by the linear lens and then received by the photosensitive assembly.

Description

Linear TOF camera module, manufacturing method thereof and electronic equipment

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of TOF (time of flight), in particular to a linear TOF camera module, a manufacturing method thereof and electronic equipment.

Background

In recent years, with the rapid development of 3D imaging technology, TOF imaging technology is also developed accordingly, so that TOF camera modules are gradually applied to more and more fields, such as somatosensory control, behavior analysis, monitoring, automatic driving, artificial intelligence, machine vision or automatic 3D modeling and the like. The TOF camera module generally measures depth information of a measured object (or a measured object) by a time of flight (TOF) method, specifically, the TOF method measures a time interval t between transmission and reception of an actively transmitted pulse signal (i.e., a pulse ranging method) or a phase difference generated by laser light once traveling back and forth to the measured object (i.e., a phase difference ranging method) to convert the time interval t into a distance of a shot object, and is used for generating depth information to measure a three-dimensional structure or a three-dimensional profile of the measured object, thereby obtaining a grayscale image and depth information of the measured object.

The TOF module can be divided into a conventional area TOF module and a line TOF module according to the difference of the emission field angles of the TOF module, wherein the field angle (i.e., horizontal field angle × vertical field angle) of the conventional area TOF module is generally 60 ° × 45 ° or 72 ° × 55 ° or the like, while the horizontal field angle of the line TOF module can be generally 100 ° to 120 °, and the vertical field angle of the line TOF module can be generally designed to be 5 ° to 40 ° according to the actual application scene. At present, the linear TOF module is mainly applied to SLAM or obstacle avoidance fields such as sweeping robots or laser radars, and can be divided into two schemes of horizontal arrangement and vertical stacking according to the relative position relationship between the transmitting module and the receiving module of the linear TOF module. For example, as shown in fig. 1, for a horizontally arranged line type TOF module 1P, its transmitting module 11P and receiving module 12P are arranged horizontally so that the horizontal transmitting field of view of the transmitting module 11P is aligned with the horizontal receiving field of view of the receiving module 12P in the horizontal direction; as shown in fig. 2A, for the vertically stacked line type TOF module 2P, the transmitting module 21P and the receiving module 12P thereof are disposed vertically stacked so that the horizontal reflection field of view of the transmitting module 21P and the horizontal receiving field of view of the receiving module 22P are aligned in the vertical direction.

However, since almost all lenses on the market are circular, the receiving module of the conventional line type TOF module usually has to use a circular lens, and is limited by the size and weight of the circular lens, and the size of the conventional line type TOF module is generally larger and heavier, which is not in line with the trend of smaller volume and lighter weight. In particular, as shown in fig. 2A and 2B, the baseline distance s (baseline) between the transmitting module 21P and the receiving module 22P in the conventional vertically stacked linear TOF module 2P is also generally larger under the limitation of the size of the circular lens, resulting in poor near-field ranging accuracy and accuracy of the conventional linear TOF module.

Disclosure of Invention

An advantage of the present invention is to provide a line TOF camera module, a method of manufacturing the same, and an electronic device, which can reduce the overall size and weight of the module, and which is helpful for meeting the current demand of electronic products for small size and light weight.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a line TOF camera module, a method of manufacturing the same, and an electronic apparatus, wherein in an embodiment of the present invention, the line TOF camera module can reduce the overall size and weight of the module through a line-like lens, so as to obtain a small-sized and light-weight module.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a line TOF camera module, a method for manufacturing the same, and an electronic device, wherein in an embodiment of the invention, the line-like lens of the line TOF camera module can be manufactured by removing the invalid region in the existing circular lens, which helps to reduce the manufacturing cost of the module.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a line TOF camera module, a method for manufacturing the same, and an electronic device, wherein, in an embodiment of the present invention, the line-like lens of the line TOF camera module can be implemented as an elliptical lens or a strip lens, so as to reduce the difficulty in manufacturing and assembling the module while reducing the overall size and weight of the module.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a line TOF camera module, a method for manufacturing the line TOF camera module, and an electronic device, wherein in an embodiment of the present invention, the line TOF camera module can improve the near-field distance measurement accuracy and accuracy of the line TOF camera module.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a line TOF camera module, a manufacturing method thereof and an electronic device, wherein in an embodiment of the invention, the line TOF camera module can significantly reduce a baseline distance between the light source emitting module and the light sensing receiving module, which is helpful for further reducing the overall size of the module and also significantly improving the near-field distance measurement accuracy and accuracy of the module.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a line TOF camera module, a method for manufacturing the same, and an electronic device, wherein in an embodiment of the invention, the line TOF camera module can simultaneously remove the inactive areas in the photosensitive chip and the optical filter, so as to greatly reduce the material cost of the module.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a line TOF camera module, a method for manufacturing the line TOF camera module, and an electronic device, wherein in an embodiment of the invention, when the light source emitting module and the light sensing receiving module in the line TOF camera module are vertically stacked, a baseline distance between the light source emitting module and the light sensing receiving module is greatly reduced, which not only can significantly improve the near-field distance measurement accuracy and accuracy of the module, but also can significantly reduce the size of the module in the vertical direction, thereby being more beneficial to the installation of a client.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a line TOF camera module, a method of manufacturing the same, and an electronic apparatus, wherein it is not necessary to use expensive materials or complicated structures in order to achieve the above advantages. Therefore, the present invention successfully and effectively provides a solution to not only provide a simple line TOF camera module, a method of manufacturing the same, and an electronic apparatus, but also increase the practicality and reliability of the line TOF camera module, the method of manufacturing the same, and the electronic apparatus.

To achieve at least one of the above advantages or other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, a line TOF camera module is provided, including:

an assembly bracket;

the light source emission module is arranged on the assembly bracket, and the horizontal emission field angle of the light source emission module is larger than the vertical emission field angle of the light source emission module and is used for emitting a linear light beam; and

a photosensitive receiving module, wherein the photosensitive receiving module is correspondingly disposed on the assembling bracket, and the photosensitive receiving module comprises:

a photosensitive assembly for receiving the reflected linear light beam; and

the linear lens comprises at least one linear lens, wherein each linear lens has a horizontal center line and a vertical center line in cross section, and the length of the horizontal center line is greater than that of the vertical center line, the linear lens is correspondingly arranged on a photosensitive path of the photosensitive assembly, and the horizontal center line of the linear lens corresponds to a horizontal emission field of view of the light source emission module, so that the reflected linear light beams are converged by the linear lens and then received by the photosensitive assembly to obtain depth information.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the light source reflection module and the light sensing reception module are assembled to the assembly bracket in a vertically stacked manner, wherein the horizontal emission field of view and the vertical emission field of view of the light source emission module are respectively aligned with the horizontal reception field of view and the vertical reception field of view of the light sensing reception module in a vertical direction, so that the vertical center line of the line-like lens is parallel to the base line of the line-like TOF camera module.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the line-like lens of the line-like lens has an elongated cross section, wherein a long side of the elongated cross section corresponds to the horizontal center line of the line-like lens, and a short side of the elongated cross section corresponds to the vertical center line of the line-like lens.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the line-like lens has two straight edges and two arc-shaped edges, wherein the two horizontal inner edges of the line-like lens respectively extend linearly along a direction parallel to the horizontal center line, and the two arc-shaped edges of the line-like lens respectively extend outwardly curved along a direction parallel to the vertical center line.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the line-like lens of the line-like lens has an elliptical cross section to form an elliptical lens, wherein a major axis of the elliptical lens is the horizontal center line of the line-like lens, and a minor axis of the elliptical lens is the vertical center line of the line-like lens.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the light source reflection module and the light sensing reception module are assembled on the assembly bracket in a horizontally arranged manner, wherein the horizontal emission field of view and the vertical emission field of view of the light source emission module are respectively aligned with the horizontal reception field of view and the vertical reception field of view of the light sensing reception module in a horizontal direction, so as to obtain the line type TOF camera module having a horizontally arranged structure.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the line-like lens of the line-like lens has a long strip-shaped cross section or an oval cross section.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the light source emitting module includes an emitting end circuit board and an emitting module main body, wherein the emitting module main body is disposed in the emitting end circuit board in an electrically-conductive manner for emitting the line-type light beam, wherein the photosensitive assembly of the photosensitive receiving module includes a receiving end circuit board and a receiving module main body, wherein the receiving module main body is disposed in the receiving end circuit board in an electrically-conductive manner for receiving the line-type light beam reflected back and converged by the line-type lens, wherein the assembling bracket is stacked between the emitting end circuit board and the receiving end circuit board, and the reflecting end circuit board and the receiving end circuit board are respectively located at an upper side and a lower side of the assembling bracket.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the line TOF camera module further includes an electrical connection device, wherein the electrical connection device connects the transmitting end circuit board of the light source transmitting module to the receiving end circuit board of the photosensitive receiving module in an electrically-conductive manner.

According to an embodiment of the application, photosensitive assembly the receiving module main part includes a sensitization chip and a filter element, wherein the sensitization chip is adorned in the receiving terminal circuit board, and the sensitization chip electricity connect in the receiving terminal circuit board, wherein the filter element set up in the sensitization chip with in the light path between the class line type camera lens, and the filter element has rectangular shape cross section, wherein the long limit and the minor face of filter element correspond to respectively the class line type lens horizontal centerline with vertical center line is used for filtering the via the line type light beam after the class line type camera lens assembles.

According to an embodiment of the application, the photosensitive chip has an elongated pixel area, and a long side and a short side of the elongated pixel area respectively correspond to the horizontal center line and the vertical center line of the line-like lens.

According to another aspect of the present application, there is further provided an electronic device, comprising:

an electronic device body; and

at least a line type TOF module of making a video recording, wherein every line type TOF module of making a video recording is set up respectively in the electronic equipment body to be used for acquireing depth information, and every TOF module of making a video recording includes:

an assembly bracket;

a photosensitive assembly for receiving the reflected linear light beam; and

the linear lens comprises at least one linear lens, wherein the cross section of each linear lens has a horizontal central line and a vertical central line, and the length of the horizontal central line is greater than that of the vertical central line, the linear lens is correspondingly arranged on a photosensitive path of the photosensitive assembly, and the horizontal central line of the linear lens corresponds to a horizontal emission field of view of the light source emission module, so that the reflected linear light beam is converged by the linear lens and then received by the photosensitive assembly to obtain the depth information.

According to another aspect of the present application, the present application further provides a method for manufacturing a line TOF camera module, comprising the steps of:

arranging a light source emission module on an assembly bracket, wherein the horizontal emission field angle of the light source emission module is larger than the vertical emission field angle of the light source emission module and is used for emitting linear light beams; and

correspondingly arranging a photosensitive receiving module on the assembling bracket, wherein a linear lens of the photosensitive receiving module is correspondingly arranged on a photosensitive path of a photosensitive assembly of the photosensitive receiving module, and the length of a horizontal central line of the cross section of each linear lens in the linear lens is greater than that of a vertical central line thereof, wherein the horizontal central line of the linear lens corresponds to the horizontal emission field of view of the light source emission module, so that the reflected linear light beams are converged by the linear lens and then received by the photosensitive assembly to obtain depth information.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will be fully apparent from the ensuing description and drawings.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings and the claims.

Drawings

Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of a horizontal linear TOF module according to the prior art.

Fig. 2A shows a perspective view of a prior art vertically stacked linear TOF module.

FIG. 2B shows a schematic plan view of the above-described vertically stacked linear TOF module of the prior art

Fig. 3 is a schematic perspective view of a linear TOF camera module according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic plan view of the line TOF camera module according to the above embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 5 shows an exploded view of the line TOF camera module according to the above embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 6 shows a first variant implementation of the line TOF camera module according to the above-described embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 7 shows a second variant implementation of the line TOF camera module according to the above-described embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 9 is a flow chart illustrating a method for manufacturing a line TOF camera module according to an embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

The following description is presented to disclose the invention so as to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention. The preferred embodiments described below are by way of example only, and other obvious variations will occur to those skilled in the art. The basic principles of the invention, as defined in the following description, may be applied to other embodiments, variations, modifications, equivalents, and other technical solutions without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that in the present disclosure, the terms "longitudinal," "lateral," "upper," "lower," "front," "rear," "left," "right," "vertical," "horizontal," "top," "bottom," "inner," "outer," and the like are used in an orientation or positional relationship indicated in the drawings for ease of description and simplicity of description, and do not indicate or imply that the referenced devices or components must be constructed and operated in a particular orientation and thus are not to be considered limiting.

In the present invention, the terms "a" and "an" in the claims and the description should be understood as meaning "one or more", that is, one element may be one in number in one embodiment, and the element may be more than one in number in another embodiment. The terms "a" and "an" should not be construed as limiting the number unless the number of such elements is explicitly recited as one in the present disclosure, but rather the terms "a" and "an" should not be construed as being limited to only one of the number.

In the description of the present invention, it is to be understood that the terms "first," "second," and the like are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance. In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that, unless explicitly stated or limited otherwise, the terms "connected" and "connected" are to be interpreted broadly, and may be, for example, fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integrally connected; can be mechanically or electrically connected; they may be directly connected or indirectly connected through an intermediate. The specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood by those skilled in the art according to specific situations.

In the description herein, references to the description of the term "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "an example," "a specific example," or "some examples," etc., mean that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the invention. In this specification, the schematic representations of the terms used above are not necessarily intended to refer to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples. Furthermore, various embodiments or examples and features of different embodiments or examples described in this specification can be combined and combined by one skilled in the art without contradiction.

At present, the line type TOF module is mainly applied to the field of SLAMs or obstacle avoidance such as sweeping robots or laser radars, and can be divided into two schemes of horizontal arrangement and vertical stacking according to the relative position relationship between the transmitting module and the receiving module of the line type TOF module. However, in both the horizontal linear TOF module 1P shown in fig. 1 and the vertical stacked linear TOF module 2P shown in fig. 2A, almost all lenses on the market are circular, so that the receiving modules of the conventional

linear TOF modules

1P and 2P usually have to use circular lenses, and thus the conventional

linear TOF modules

1P and 2P are generally large in size and heavy in weight, and are not in line with the trend of small size and light weight.

In view of the fact that the horizontal field angle of the line TOF module can reach 100 ° to 120 ° and the vertical field angle of the line TOF module can be designed to be 5 ° to 40 ° according to the practical application scenario, that is, the circular lens in the receiving

modules

12P and 22P of the existing

line TOF modules

1P and 2P inevitably has an invalid area with a larger area, the present application provides a line TOF camera module, a manufacturing method thereof and an electronic device thereof.

Specifically, referring to fig. 3 to 5 of the drawings, a line TOF camera module according to an embodiment of the invention is illustrated, wherein the line TOF camera module 1 comprises a light source emitting module 10, a light sensing receiving module 20 and an assembling bracket 30. The light source emission module 10 is disposed on the assembly holder 30, and the horizontal emission angle of view H1 of the light source emission module 10 is larger than the vertical emission angle of view V1 of the light source emission module 10 for emitting a line-shaped light beam. The light sensing receiving module 20 is correspondingly disposed on the assembly bracket 30, and the light sensing receiving module 20 includes a light sensing element 21 and a linear lens 22, wherein the light sensing element 21 is used for receiving the reflected linear light beam, wherein the linear lens 22 includes at least one linear lens 220, wherein each of the linear lens 220 has a horizontal center line 2201 and a vertical center line 2202 in cross section, and the length of the horizontal center line 2201 is greater than that of the vertical center line 2202, wherein the linear lens 22 is correspondingly disposed on the light sensing path of the light sensing element 21, and the horizontal center line 2201 of the linear lens 220 corresponds to the horizontal emitting field of view of the light source reflection module 10, so that the reflected linear light beam emitted by the light source emission module 10 is converged by the linear lens 22, and received by the photosensitive assembly 21 to obtain depth information. Meanwhile, the horizontal receiving field of view of the photosensitive receiving module 20 corresponds to the horizontal center line 2201 of the line-like lens 220, and the vertical receiving field of view of the photosensitive receiving module 20 corresponds to the vertical center line 2202 of the line-like lens 220, so that the horizontal receiving field angle H2 of the photosensitive receiving module 20 is larger than the vertical receiving field angle V2 of the photosensitive receiving module 20, thereby ensuring that the horizontal receiving field angle and the vertical receiving field angle of the photosensitive receiving module 20 respectively and correspondingly match the horizontal emission field angle and the vertical emission field angle of the light source emission module 10.

It should be noted that, since the horizontal center line 2201 of the line-type lens 220 in the line-type TOF camera module 1 of the present application corresponds to the horizontal emission field of view of the light source reflection module 10, the length of the horizontal central line 2201 of the line-type lens 220 in the line-type TOF camera module 1 of the present application only needs to be equal to the diameter of the circular lens in the existing line-type TOF module to meet the requirement of converging the line-type light beam, the length of the vertical center line 2202 of the line-like lens 220 in the line-type TOF camera module 1 of the present application can be smaller than the diameter of a circular lens in this existing line-type TOF module, the size and weight of the line-like lens 22 in the line-type TOF camera module 1 of the present application are necessarily smaller than those of the circular lens in the existing line-type TOF module. In other words, compared with the existing line type TOF module, the line type TOF camera module 1 of the present application has reduced overall size and weight, which is helpful for meeting the development demand of current electronic products for small volume and light weight.

More specifically, the horizontal center line 2201 of the line-like lens 220 in the line-like TOF camera module 1 may be parallel or coincident with the horizontal emission field of view of the light source reflection module 10, and the vertical center line 2202 of the line-like lens 220 is correspondingly coincident or parallel with the vertical emission field of view of the light source reflection module 10, so as to fully utilize the cross section of the line-like lens 220, reduce the invalid area in the line-like lens 22 as much as possible, and reduce the size and weight of the line-like lens 22 as much as possible.

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 3 and 4, in an example of the present application, the line-like lens 220 in the line-type TOF camera module 1 may have an elongated cross section, wherein a long side of the elongated cross section corresponds to the horizontal center line 2201 of the line-like lens 220, and a short side of the elongated cross section corresponds to the vertical center line 2202 of the line-like lens 220, so as to ensure that the length of the horizontal center line 2201 of the line-like lens 220 is greater than the length of the vertical center line 2202 of the line-like lens 220, so that the line-like lens 220 can provide enough effective area to match the line-like light beams emitted by the light source emission module 10 to achieve the required convergence requirement.

Preferably, the ratio between the length of the horizontal center line 2201 of the line-like lens 220 and the length of the vertical center line 2202 of the line-like lens 220 is between 2:1 and 30:1, so as to provide a large enough effective area to meet the convergence requirement of the line-like light beams, and simultaneously reduce the size and weight of the line-like lens 22 as much as possible.

More preferably, as shown in fig. 3 and 4, each of the line-like lenses 220 of the line-like lens 22 has two linear edges 221 and two arc-shaped edges 222, wherein the two horizontal edges 221 respectively extend linearly in a direction parallel to the horizontal center line 2201, and the two arc-shaped edges 222 respectively extend outwardly in a direction parallel to the vertical center line 2202, so that the line-like lenses 220 can be manufactured by cutting or grinding a circular lens, which helps to reduce the manufacturing cost of the line-like lenses 220.

Most preferably, the arc-shaped edge 222 of the line-like lens 220 can be implemented as a circular arc edge, and the diameter of the arc-shaped edge 222 of the line-like lens 220 is equal to the length of the horizontal center line 2201 of the line-like lens 220, so that the line-like lens 220 can be obtained by cutting the existing circular lens with two cutters, thereby simplifying the manufacturing process of the line-like lens 220 to the maximum extent and greatly reducing the manufacturing cost of the line-like lens 22. Of course, in other examples of the present application, the line-like lens 220 in the line-type TOF camera module 1 may also have a long-strip-shaped cross section such as a rectangle or a rounded rectangle, as long as the requirement for converging the reflected line-like light beams can be met, and the present application is not described herein again.

It is noted that, since the Baseline distance (Baseline) between the transmitting module and the receiving module is generally larger in the limit of the size of the circular lens (as shown in fig. 2B), which results in poor accuracy and accuracy of near-field distance measurement of the conventional linear TOF module, in order to solve this problem, in the above-mentioned embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 3 and 4, the light source reflection module 10 and the photoreception receiving module 20 of the linear TOF camera module 1 can be assembled to the assembly bracket 30 in a vertically stacked manner, wherein the horizontal transmitting field of view of the light source transmitting module 10 is aligned with the horizontal receiving field of view of the photoreception receiving module 20 in the vertical direction, and the vertical transmitting field of view of the light source transmitting module 10 is aligned with the vertical receiving field of view of the photoreception receiving module 20 in the vertical direction, the vertical center line 2202 of the line-like lens 220 of the line-like lens 22 of the photoreception receiving module 20 is made to be parallel to the base line of the line-like TOF camera module 1, so that the base line distance S between the light source emitting module 10 of the line-like TOF camera module 1 and the photoreception receiving module 20 is reduced, and the near-field distance measurement precision and the accuracy of the line-like TOF camera module 1 are improved. In other words, as shown in fig. 4, the line TOF camera module 1 of the present application can get rid of the limitation of the existing size of the circular lens, so that the line TOF camera module 1 can significantly reduce the baseline distance S between the light source emitting module 10 and the light sensing receiving module 20, which helps to significantly improve the near-field distance measurement accuracy and precision of the module while reducing the overall size of the module.

According to the above-mentioned embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 5, the light source emission module 10 may include an emission end circuit board 11 and an emission module body 12, wherein the emission module body 12 is electrically disposed on the emission end circuit board 11 for emitting the line-type light beam. The photosensitive element 21 of the photosensitive receiving module 20 may include a receiving end circuit board 211 and a receiving module body 212, wherein the receiving module body 212 is electrically disposed on the receiving end circuit board 211 for receiving the line-shaped light beam reflected back and converged by the line-shaped lens 22 to obtain the depth information.

Exemplarily, as shown in fig. 3 and 5, the assembly holder 30 is stacked between the transmission-side wiring board 11 and the reception-side wiring board 211 in the TOF camera module 1, and the transmission-side wiring board 11 and the reception-side wiring board 211 are respectively located at an upper side and a lower side of the assembly holder 30. Meanwhile, the line type TOF camera module 1 further comprises an electrical connection device 40, wherein the electrical connection device 40 electrically connects the transmitting end circuit board 11 to the receiving end circuit board 211, so as to control the light source transmitting module 10 and the light sensing receiving module 20 of the line type TOF camera module 1 synchronously.

Preferably, as shown in fig. 5, the electrical connection device 40 is implemented as a flexible circuit board 41, so as to get rid of the position restriction between the transmission end circuit board 11 and the receiving end circuit board 211 through the flexible circuit board 41, so as to simplify the structural design of the line TOF camera module 1, and facilitate reasonable arrangement of the positions of the light source emitting module 10 and the light sensing receiving module 20. Of course, in other examples of the present invention, the electrical connection device 40 may also be implemented as, but not limited to, other types of electrical connection devices such as a flat cable, a special-shaped circuit board, etc., as long as it can ensure that the transmitting-end circuit board 11 can be electrically connected to the receiving-end circuit board 211, and the description of the present invention is omitted.

Further, according to the above-mentioned embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 5, the emission module main body 12 of the light source emission module 10 of the TOF camera module 1 may include, but is not limited to, a light source device 121, a light homogenizing member 122 and an emission end support 123, wherein the light source device 121 is attached to an upper surface of the emission end circuit board 11, and the light source device 121 is electrically connected to the emission end circuit board 11, wherein the emission end support 123 is disposed on the upper surface of the emission end circuit board 11, and the emission end support 123 surrounds the light source device 121, wherein the light homogenizing member 122 is mounted to the emission end support 123, and the light homogenizing member 122 is located in an emission path of the light source device 121, and is used for homogenizing a light beam emitted by the light source device 121. It can be understood that the upper surface of the transmitting end circuit board 11 faces the transmitting direction of the light source transmitting module 10; and the lower surface of the transmitting end circuit board 11 faces the opposite direction of the transmitting direction of the light source transmitting module 10, that is, the transmitting direction of the light source transmitting module 10 is directed from the lower surface of the transmitting end circuit board 11 to the upper surface of the transmitting end circuit board 11.

It should be noted that the light-homogenizing element 122 of the present invention can be implemented as, but not limited to, a Diffuser (english: Diffuser), as long as the light beam emitted through the light source device 121 can be spread more uniformly. In addition, the light source device 121 of the present invention may be, but is not limited to being, implemented as a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (english: VCSEL) for emitting a laser beam.

According to the above embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 3 and fig. 5, the receiving module body 212 in the light sensing receiving module 20 of the line type TOF camera module 1 may include, but is not limited to, a light sensing chip 2121 and a filter element 2122, wherein the light sensing chip 2121 is attached to the receiving end circuit board 211, and the light sensing chip 2121 is electrically connected to the receiving end circuit board 211, and the filter element 2122 is disposed in an optical path between the light sensing chip 2121 and the line-like lens 22 and is configured to filter the line type light beam converged by the line-like lens 22, so that the light sensing chip 2121 receives the light beam filtered by the filter element 2122, which is beneficial to improving the imaging quality of the line type TOF camera module 1.

Preferably, as shown in fig. 5, the filter element 2122 of the receiving module body 212 has a long strip-shaped cross section, wherein a long side of the filter element 2122 corresponds to the horizontal center line 2201 of the line-like lens 220 of the line-like lens 22, and a short side of the filter element 2122 corresponds to the vertical center line 2202 of the line-like lens 220, so as to match with the line-shaped light beam converged by the line-like lens 22, so as to provide a high light filtering effect, and reduce the material used for the filter element 2122, which helps to reduce the manufacturing cost of the line-type TOF camera module 1.

It is noted that, the aspect ratio of the effective pixel area (effective pixel area) of the photo sensor chip (sensor) of most TOF modules currently on the market is usually 4: about 3, as for the line TOF camera module 1 of the present application, since the actually used pixel regions generally occupy only the middle rows of the photosensitive chip 2121, as shown in fig. 5, the photosensitive chip 2121 of the line TOF camera module 1 of the present application may have elongated pixel regions 21210 (e.g. with an aspect ratio of 2:1 or 3: 1, etc.), and the long sides and the short sides of the elongated pixel regions 21210 respectively correspond to the horizontal center line 2201 and the vertical center line 2202 of the line-like lens 220, so as to reduce the number of pixel rows, thereby greatly reducing the cost of the photosensitive chip 2121.

It is worth mentioning that, in an example of the present application, the emission module body 12 of the light source emission module 10 may be, but is not limited to, fixed to the emission end circuit board 11 by soldering, and the emission end circuit board 11 may be, but is not limited to, fixed to the upper end face of the assembly bracket 30 by gluing; meanwhile, the receiving module main body 22 of the photosensitive receiving module 20 may be, but is not limited to, fixed to the assembly bracket 30 by means of screw connection, and the receiving-end circuit board may be, but is not limited to, fixed to a lower end surface of the assembly bracket 30 by means of dispensing.

Fig. 6 shows a first variant of the line TOF camera module 1 according to the above-described embodiment of the application. Specifically, as shown in fig. 6, the first modified embodiment according to the present application is different in that: the line-like lens 220 in the line-like lens 22 may have an elliptical cross section to form an elliptical lens 220A, and a long axis of the elliptical lens 220A is used as the horizontal center line 2201 of the line-like lens 220, and a short axis of the elliptical lens 220A is used as the vertical center line 2202 of the line-like lens 220, so as to improve the effect of converging the reflected line-like light beam emitted by the light source emission module 10, and to help improve the detection quality of the line-like TOF camera module 1.

More specifically, as shown in fig. 6, in this modified embodiment of the present application, the light source reflection module 10 and the photoreception receiving module 20 may be assembled to the assembly rack 30 in a vertically stacked manner, and the horizontal emission field of view of the light source emission module 10 is parallel to the long axis of the elliptical mirror 220A in the photoreception receiving module 20, and the vertical emission field of view of the light source emission module 10 extends along the short axis direction of the elliptical mirror 220A, so that the horizontal emission field of view of the light source emission module 10 is aligned in the vertical direction with the horizontal reception field of view of the photoreception receiving module 20, and the vertical emission field of view of the light source emission module 10 is aligned in the vertical direction with the vertical reception field of view of the photoreception receiving module 20, thereby obtaining the TOF camera module 1 of a line type having a vertically stacked structure, so that the minor axis of the elliptical lens 220A is parallel to the baseline of the linear TOF camera module 1.

Fig. 7 shows a second variant of the line TOF camera module 1 according to the above-described embodiment of the application. Specifically, as shown in fig. 7, the line type TOF camera module 1 according to the second modified embodiment of the present application is different from the above-described first modified embodiment of the present application in that: the light source reflection module 10 and the light sensing reception module 20 may be assembled to the assembly bracket 30 in a horizontal arrangement, and the horizontal emission field of view of the light source emission module 10 extends along the long axis direction of the elliptical lens 220A in the photoreception receiving module 20, and the vertical emission field of view of the light source emission module 10 is parallel to the minor axis of the elliptical mirror 220A, so that the horizontal emission field of view of the light source emission module 10 is aligned in the horizontal direction with the horizontal reception field of view of the light sensing reception module 20, and the vertical emission field of view of the light source emission module 10 is aligned in the horizontal direction with the vertical reception field of view of the photoreception reception module 20, thereby obtaining the linear TOF camera module 1 with a horizontal arrangement structure, so that the long axis of the elliptical lens 220A is parallel to the base line of the linear TOF camera module 1. It can be understood that, compared with the circular lens of the existing linear TOF module, the long axis of the elliptical lens 220A of the present application is equal to the diameter of the circular lens and the short axis of the elliptical lens 220A is smaller than the diameter of the circular lens, so that the requirement of converging the reflected linear light beams can be satisfied, and at this time, the volume and weight of the elliptical lens 220A are necessarily smaller than those of the circular lens, so as to obtain the linear TOF camera module 1 with small volume and light weight.

According to another aspect of the present application, as shown in fig. 8, the present application further provides an electronic device, wherein the electronic device includes an electronic device body 800 and at least one of the above-mentioned linear TOF camera modules 1, wherein each of the linear TOF camera modules 1 is respectively disposed on the electronic device body 800 for obtaining depth information.

It should be noted that the type of the electronic device body 800 is not limited, for example, the electronic device body 800 may be any electronic device capable of being configured with the line TOF camera module 1, such as a sweeping robot, a depth camera, an unmanned aerial vehicle, a duct cleaning robot, a smart phone, and a computer. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that although the electronic device body 800 is implemented as a sweeping robot in fig. 8, it does not limit the content and scope of the invention.

According to another aspect of the invention, the invention further provides a method for manufacturing the line type TOF camera module. Specifically, as shown in fig. 9, the method for manufacturing the line type TOF camera module comprises the following steps:

s100: arranging a light source emission module on an assembly bracket, wherein the horizontal emission field angle of the light source emission module is larger than the vertical emission field angle of the light source emission module and is used for emitting linear light beams; and

s200: correspondingly arranging a photosensitive receiving module on the assembling bracket, wherein a linear lens of the photosensitive receiving module is correspondingly arranged on a photosensitive path of a photosensitive assembly of the photosensitive receiving module, and the length of a horizontal central line of the cross section of each linear lens in the linear lens is greater than that of a vertical central line thereof, wherein the horizontal central line of the linear lens corresponds to the horizontal emission field of view of the light source emission module, so that the reflected linear light beams are converged by the linear lens and then received by the photosensitive assembly to obtain depth information.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the embodiments of the invention described above and shown in the drawings are given by way of example only and are not limiting of the invention. The objects of the invention have been fully and effectively accomplished. The functional and structural principles of the present invention have been shown and described in the examples, and any variations or modifications of the embodiments of the present invention may be made without departing from the principles.

Claims

1. A line type TOF module of making a video recording, its characterized in that includes:

an assembly bracket;

a photosensitive assembly for receiving the reflected linear light beam; and

2. The line TOF camera module of claim 1, wherein said light source reflection module and said photoreception receiving module are assembled to said assembly rack in a vertical stack, wherein said horizontal and vertical emission fields of view of said light source emission module are vertically aligned with horizontal and vertical reception fields of view of said photoreception receiving module, respectively, such that said vertical centerline of said line-like lens is parallel to a baseline of said line TOF camera module.

3. The line type TOF camera module of claim 2, wherein said line-like lens of said line-like lens has an elongated cross-section with a long side of said elongated cross-section corresponding to said horizontal centerline of said line-like lens and a short side of said elongated cross-section corresponding to said vertical centerline of said line-like lens.

4. The line type TOF camera module according to claim 3, wherein the line-like lens has two straight edges and two arc-shaped edges, wherein the two horizontal inner edges of the line-like lens respectively extend straight along a direction parallel to the horizontal center line, and the two arc-shaped edges of the line-like lens respectively extend curved outwards along a direction parallel to the vertical center line.

5. The line type TOF camera module according to claim 2, wherein the line-like lens of the line-like lens has an elliptical cross section to form an elliptical lens with a major axis of the elliptical lens as the horizontal center line of the line-like lens and a minor axis of the elliptical lens as the vertical center line of the line-like lens.

6. The line TOF camera module according to claim 1, wherein said light source reflection module and said photoreception receiving module are assembled to said assembly rack in a horizontal arrangement, wherein said horizontal emission field of view and vertical emission field of view of said light source emission module are horizontally aligned with said horizontal reception field of view and vertical reception field of view of said photoreception receiving module, respectively, to obtain said line TOF camera module with a horizontal arrangement.

7. The line type TOF camera module of claim 6, wherein said line-like lens of said line-like lens has a long strip-shaped cross section or an oval cross section.

8. The line TOF camera module according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the light source emitting module includes an emitting end circuit board and an emitting module body, wherein the emitting module body is electrically disposed on the emitting end circuit board for emitting the line-type light beam, wherein the photosensitive assembly of the photosensitive receiving module includes a receiving end circuit board and a receiving module body, wherein the receiving module body is electrically disposed on the receiving end circuit board for receiving the line-type light beam reflected back and converged by the line-type lens, wherein the assembly bracket is stacked between the emitting end circuit board and the receiving end circuit board, and the reflecting end circuit board and the receiving end circuit board are respectively disposed at an upper side and a lower side of the assembly bracket.

9. The line TOF camera module according to claim 8, further comprising an electrical connection device, wherein said electrical connection device electrically connects said transmitting side circuit board of said light source transmitting module to said receiving side circuit board of said light sensing receiving module.

10. The line TOF camera module according to claim 8, wherein the receiving module body of the photosensitive assembly includes a photosensitive chip and a filter element, wherein the photosensitive chip is attached to the receiving end circuit board and electrically connected to the receiving end circuit board, wherein the filter element is disposed in the optical path between the photosensitive chip and the line-like lens, and the filter element has an elongated cross section, wherein a long side and a short side of the filter element correspond to the horizontal center line and the vertical center line of the line-like lens, respectively, for filtering the line-like light beam converged by the line-like lens.

11. The line type TOF camera module according to claim 10, wherein the photo-sensing chip has an elongated pixel area, and a long side and a short side of the elongated pixel area correspond to the horizontal center line and the vertical center line of the line-like lens, respectively.

12. An electronic device, comprising:

an electronic device body; and

an assembly bracket;

a photosensitive assembly for receiving the reflected linear light beam; and

13. A method for manufacturing a linear TOF camera module is characterized by comprising the following steps: