CN114721111A

CN114721111A - Optical zoom camera module

Info

Publication number: CN114721111A
Application number: CN202011508955.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 袁栋立; 何艳宁; 王启; 吴志涵; 王海涛; 周胄
Original assignee: Ningbo Sunny Opotech Co Ltd
Current assignee: Ningbo Sunny Opotech Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-12-18
Filing date: 2020-12-18
Publication date: 2022-07-08
Anticipated expiration: 2040-12-18
Also published as: CN114721111B

Abstract

The invention provides an optical zoom module, which comprises: a module housing; a plurality of lens groups coaxially arranged along an axis; a linear guide bar parallel to the axis and disposed at a first side of the module housing; a plurality of carriers, each of which has one lens group mounted therein, at least two carriers of the plurality of carriers being movable carriers, the linear guide rod passing through at least two of the movable carriers so that at least two of the movable carriers can move along the linear guide rod, respectively; and a second rail located on a second side of the module case, the second side being opposite to the first side, the second rail being parallel to the linear guide, an upper surface of the second rail and a lower surface of the movable carrier being supported by balls. The present application can realize continuous optical zooming with a small space cost, and the zooming movement of the movable lens has an excellent degree of collimation.

Description

Optical zoom camera module

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of camera modules, in particular to an optical zoom camera module.

Background

With the rise of living standard, the requirements of consumers on the camera function of terminal devices such as mobile phones and tablets are higher and higher, so that the effects of background blurring and night shooting are required to be achieved, the requirements on telephoto are also provided, and the consumers need the terminal devices capable of clearly shooting distant pictures. Optical zoom is a camera module that achieves zoom shooting. The optical zooming is to change the focal length of the lens by changing the distance between the optical lenses of the lens so as to achieve the purpose of zooming, and can shoot objects at far positions more clearly, and the imaging quality of images formed by the optical zooming is relatively high. Zooming here refers to changing the focal length in order to photograph a subject of different distances. Furthermore, at present, a periscopic module is often used in a mobile phone or other terminal device to meet a telephoto requirement, and how to make the periscopic module have an optical zoom capability in a limited space of the mobile phone is a big problem facing the present.

Optical zoom camera modules typically include at least two slidable lens carriers to move the zoom and compensation lens groups separately. The zoom lens group moves along the optical axis, and the focal length of the whole imaging system can be adjusted. The compensation lens group also moves along the optical axis direction, the focusing function of the camera module is realized, and the focus offset caused by the movement of the zoom lens group is compensated, so that the imaging quality of the module is improved. To achieve the above movement, one of the ideas in the prior art is to provide a guiding groove on the module housing, and assemble two (or more) lens carriers on the guiding groove through balls and corresponding bearings, so that the zoom lens group and the compensating lens group can move along the optical axis along the guiding groove. However, for an optical zoom module, especially an optical zoom module having a long focal length, the moving stroke of the lens carrier is often long, the processing precision (especially the processing precision of mass production products) of the guide groove formed in the module housing (or other similar fixing part) is limited, and the manufacturing tolerance of the guide groove itself may cause the degree of collimation of the moving strokes of two (or more) lens carriers to be insufficient, thereby causing the imaging quality of the module to be reduced.

To solve the above problem, a solution for achieving the aligned sliding of multiple lens carriers based on dual-guide-bar guiding is proposed in the prior art. In such a solution, two parallel guide rods are usually installed on two sides of the optical zoom module, two lens carriers are mounted on the two guide rods on two sides, and each linear guide rod passes through the two lens carriers. Thus, during zooming, both lens carriers can slide along the guide rod. More specifically, a plurality of carriers that will install lens structure set gradually from the object side to the image side, and at the in-process of shooing, a plurality of carriers of drive move to realize the continuous zoom of shooting in-process, the effectual imaging quality who promotes the module. It should be noted that in this type of scheme, there may be more guide rods, and the above description is given by taking an example in which two guide rods are disposed on two sides of the guide rod. For example, patent application CN201980011002.1 discloses a camera module comprising: a base; a plurality of guide rods coupled to the base; a first mover disposed in the base, the first mover including at least one lens disposed therein; and a second mover provided in the base, the second mover including at least one lens provided therein, wherein each of the first mover and the second mover includes a plurality of guide grooves formed therein to allow the guide bars to be provided therein, wherein each of the plurality of guide grooves includes a protruding portion formed to be in contact with a corresponding one of the guide bars. The first mover may correspond to the one lens carrier (a sub-lens or a lens group may be directly mounted in the lens carrier), and the second mover may correspond to the other lens carrier.

Because the guide rod can be made of metal materials or other rigid materials which are not easy to bend, the guide rod has better collimation degree than a straight guide groove on a shell (generally made of plastic materials). However, in such a technical scheme, metal guide rods need to be respectively installed on two sides of the module, and the guide rods often need to pass through at least two lens carriers, which results in that the lens carriers themselves also need a certain thickness to ensure the structural strength thereof, thereby resulting in that the module occupies a larger volume on two sides thereof, which is not beneficial to miniaturization of devices.

Therefore, there is a need for a solution that can reduce the size of the optical zoom module and ensure a high degree of collimation of the moving path of the sliding component.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to overcome the defects of the prior art and provide a solution which can reduce the volume of an optical zoom module and ensure that the moving path of a sliding part has higher collimation degree.

To solve the above technical problem, the present invention provides an optical zoom module, which includes: a module housing; a plurality of lens groups coaxially arranged along an axis; a linear guide bar parallel to the axis and disposed at a first side of the module housing; a plurality of carriers, each of which has one lens group mounted therein, at least two carriers of the plurality of carriers being movable carriers, the linear guide rod passing through at least two of the movable carriers so that at least two of the movable carriers can move along the linear guide rod, respectively; and a second rail located on a second side of the module case, the second side being opposite to the first side, the second rail being parallel to the linear guide, an upper surface of the second rail and a lower surface of the movable carrier being supported by balls.

Wherein the second rail has a flat upper surface.

The second rail is a long strip-shaped metal sheet, and the upper surface of the metal sheet and the lower surface of the movable carrier are supported through the balls.

Wherein the second rail is directly formed on an upper surface of a bottom plate of the module case.

Wherein, on the second side of the module housing, a groove with a downward opening is arranged on the bottom surface of the movable carrier, the ball is accommodated in the groove, and the ball is clamped between the groove and the second track.

Each movable carrier is provided with a guide rod adaptation through hole on the first side of the module shell, and the guide rod sequentially penetrates through the guide rod adaptation through holes of each movable carrier.

At least one annular accommodating cavity is formed between the inner side face of the guide rod adapting through hole and the guide rod, the annular accommodating cavity is provided with a plurality of second balls, and the second balls are surrounded on the guide rod.

The optical zoom module is a periscopic optical zoom module.

The optical zoom module further comprises a light turning element, the light turning element is suitable for reflecting incident light to the imaging channel from the incident channel, the optical center of the incident channel forms an incident optical axis, the optical center of the imaging channel forms the main optical axis, and the incident optical axis is perpendicular to the main optical axis.

The multiple carriers comprise a fixed carrier and two movable carriers, a fixed mirror group is arranged in the fixed carrier, and a zoom mirror group and a compensation mirror group are respectively arranged in the two movable carriers; the zoom lens group is suitable for adjusting the focal length of the whole imaging system, and the compensation lens group realizes the focusing of the imaging system so as to compensate the focus offset caused by the movement of the zoom lens group.

The fixed mirror group, the zoom mirror group and the compensation mirror group are sequentially arranged from an object side to an image side.

Wherein, optics zoom module still includes the photosensitive assembly, the photosensitive assembly includes the circuit board and installs in the sensitization chip on circuit board surface, the side of circuit board has a flexonics area, the flexonics area buckle extremely the first side or the second side of module casing, the first side or the second side of module casing have the second circuit board, the second circuit board passes through the flexonics area with circuit board electric conductance leads to.

The guide rod is fixed on the module shell; the module housing includes a housing floor, housing sidewalls, and a cover.

The second track is a guide groove made in the bottom plate of the shell, the ball is arranged in the guide groove and is suitable for rolling along the guide groove, the guide direction of the guide groove is parallel to the linear guide rod, and the rolling top surface supports the bottom surface of the movable carrier.

Wherein the movable carrier comprises a first slide mounting part at the first side, a second slide part at the second side, and a carrier base plate connecting the first slide mounting part and the second slide part, the first slide mounting part, the second slide part, and the base plate form a U-shaped groove, and the mirror group is mounted in the U-shaped groove.

The lens group is assembled through a lens cone, and the outer side surface of the lens cone is fixed on the inner side surface of the U-shaped groove.

Wherein the carrier bottom plate and the housing bottom plate have a gap therebetween.

Wherein, on the first side, the side wall of the shell is provided with a limiting structure, the limiting structure is arranged between the first sliding installation parts of two adjacent movable carriers, and the guide rod penetrates through the first sliding installation parts and the limiting structure of at least two movable carriers.

And a buffer layer is arranged on the end surface of the first sliding installation part and/or the end surface of the limiting structure.

Wherein, on the first side, the side wall of the shell is provided with a limiting structure which is arranged between the first sliding installation parts of two adjacent movable carriers, and the guide rod penetrates through the first sliding installation parts and the limiting structure of at least two movable carriers; and buffer layers are arranged on the end surfaces of the lens cones in the U-shaped grooves of the two adjacent movable carriers.

Wherein the movable carrier is driven by a magnet coil.

The magnet is arranged on the inner side surface of the side wall of the shell, and the coil is arranged on the outer side surface of the movable carrier.

Wherein the movable carrier comprises a first slide mount, a second slide, and a carrier floor connecting the first slide mount and the second slide, wherein the first slide mount is located on the first side of the module housing and the second slide is located on the second side of the module housing; the first sliding installation piece, the second sliding part and the bottom plate form a U-shaped groove, and the lens group is installed in the U-shaped groove; the magnet is provided on an inner side surface of the case side wall on the first side, and the coil is provided on an outer side surface of the first slider of the movable carrier.

Wherein a bottom surface of each of the second sliding portions has a groove in which the ball is disposed, and the bottom surface of the second sliding portion and an upper surface of the second rail are supported by the ball.

Wherein the second track has a magnetically permeable material; in the second sliding portion, a second magnet is attached above the recess, and the magnetic force between the second magnet and the second rail causes the recess and the second rail to sandwich the ball.

Compared with the prior art, the application has at least one of the following technical effects:

1. the optical zoom module of this application can realize continuous optical zoom with less space cost, and its sliding part can slide along the guide arm, consequently has excellent collimation.

2. The optical zoom module of the application is provided with the guide rod, can effectively ensure that the moving directions of the zoom group and the compensation group do not deviate from the main optical axis, and is particularly suitable for a continuous optical zoom module with a long-focus focal length.

3. In some embodiments of the application, can avoid the piece that the collision produced through set up crashproof material at the sliding part of optics zoom module, and then reduce the camera lens and shoot the image and appear the risk of stain.

4. In some embodiments of the present application, the optical zoom module has a compact structure and is convenient for assembly, which is very beneficial to mass production.

5. The optical zoom module's of this application solution is particularly suitable for the tele zoom module of periscopic structure, in other words, when sliding part's movement stroke is longer, for the optical zoom scheme of no guide arm, the advantage of this application will be more obvious.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the positional relationship of three sub-lenses in one embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of an optical zoom module according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of the optical zoom module of the embodiment of FIG. 2 at another angle;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the connection between the movable carrier and the housing floor in one embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view of an optical zoom module of the present application with three sub-lenses removed;

FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view of the optical zoom module taken along the axis of the linear guide rod;

FIG. 7 illustrates a periscopic optical zoom module in one embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 shows the positional relationship of optical elements in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 illustrates a perspective view of a module housing, i.e., a linear guide, in one embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 shows a schematic perspective view of two moveable supports;

fig. 11 shows a perspective view of a third sub-lens;

fig. 12 is a partial perspective view of a camera module according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is a schematic optical path diagram of a periscopic optical zoom module according to a modified embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

For a better understanding of the present application, various aspects of the present application will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the detailed description is merely illustrative of exemplary embodiments of the present application and does not limit the scope of the present application in any way. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the specification. The expression "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

It should be noted that in the present specification, expressions such as first, second, etc. are used only for distinguishing one feature from another feature, and do not indicate any limitation on the features. Thus, a first body discussed below may also be referred to as a second body without departing from the teachings of the present application.

In the drawings, the thickness, size, and shape of an object have been slightly exaggerated for convenience of explanation. The figures are purely diagrammatic and not drawn to scale.

It will be further understood that the terms "comprises," "comprising," "includes," "including," "has," "including," and/or "including," when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. Moreover, when a statement such as "at least one of" appears after the list of listed features, that the entirety of the listed features is modified rather than modifying individual elements in the list. Furthermore, when describing embodiments of the present application, the use of "may" mean "one or more embodiments of the present application. Also, the term "exemplary" is intended to refer to an example or illustration.

As used herein, the terms "substantially," "about," and the like are used as words of table approximation, not as words of table degree, and are intended to account for inherent deviations in measured or calculated values that would be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this application belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

It should be noted that the embodiments and features of the embodiments in the present application may be combined with each other without conflict.

The invention is further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

According to one embodiment of the present application, there is provided an optical zoom module including three sub-lenses. Of the three sub-lenses, one is a fixed lens and two are movable lenses, which are coaxially arranged along an axis (e.g., a main optical axis), and the two movable lenses are respectively movable along the axis. This is further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a positional relationship of three sub-lenses in an embodiment of the present application. Referring to fig. 1, in the present embodiment, three lenses are coaxially arranged along a main optical axis ax. In optical design, the first lens 10 may be a fixed lens, and the second lens 20 and the third lens 30 may be movable lenses. In this embodiment, the guide rod may be used to limit the movement of the second lens 20 and the third lens 30, so as to ensure that the movement directions of the second lens and the third lens are on the same straight line, that is, ensure the straightness of movement of the second lens and the third lens. The sub-lens can be arranged in the carrier, and the carrier is movably connected with the guide rod, so that the sub-lens can move along the guide rod. In the present embodiment, each sub-lens has a lens group consisting of one or more lenses, and for convenience of description, the lens group is simply referred to as a lens group in the present application. Further, fig. 2 shows a schematic perspective structure diagram of an optical zoom module in an embodiment of the present application. Fig. 3 shows a perspective view of the optical zoom module in the embodiment of fig. 2 at another angle. Referring to fig. 2 and 3, in the present embodiment, the optical zoom module 1000 includes a module housing 100, a plurality of lens groups (corresponding to the first lens 10, the second lens 20, and the third lens 30) coaxially arranged along a main optical axis ax, a linear guide 200, a plurality of carriers, and a second rail (hidden in fig. 2, having a flat upper surface, and further described below) arranged on the module housing 100. The linear guide 200 is parallel to the main optical axis ax (refer to fig. 1) and is disposed at one side of the module case 100, and the second rail is disposed at the other side of the module case 100. For the convenience of description, one side having the linear guide is referred to as a first side a and the other side opposite thereto is referred to as a second side B in the present application. In fig. 2, the first side a is a rear side (i.e., a side located in a negative x-axis direction in fig. 2), and the second side B is a front side (i.e., a side located in a positive x-axis direction in fig. 2). In this embodiment, each of the plurality of carriers has one sub-lens mounted therein, and the sub-lenses may be respectively used to implement different functions. At least two of the plurality of carriers are movable carriers. In the present embodiment, the number of movable carriers is two, and the two movable carriers are the second carrier 40 and the third carrier 50, respectively. The linear guide 200 passes through the two movable carriers (the second carrier 40 and the third carrier 50) so that the two movable carriers (e.g., the second carrier 40 and the third carrier 50) can move along the linear guide 200, respectively. A second rail is located on the second side B of the module housing 100, the second rail (the second rail is hidden in fig. 2 and is therefore not shown) is parallel to the linear guide 200, and an upper surface of the second rail and a lower surface of the movable carrier are supported by balls, so that the movable carrier can be limited in the z-axis direction (this will be described in more detail below in connection with further embodiments). On the first side a, the movable carrier can be moved along the linear guide 200 by the drive element, and on the second side B, the movable carrier can also be moved in the xoy plane by the drive element, supported by the second track and the balls. Due to the limiting effect of the linear guide on the first side and the rigidity of the movable carrier itself, the direction of movement of the movable carrier is also linear on the second side. In summary, this embodiment uses an asymmetric guiding structure, where a linear guide is arranged on one side of the module, and a second track is arranged on the other side of the module and is movably connected with the movable carrier through balls. Compared with the guide structures with linear guide rods arranged on two sides, the asymmetric guide structure of the embodiment can reduce the space occupied by the guide rods and the adaptive structure thereof, so that the width of the module is reduced (the width is the size in the x-axis direction in fig. 2, the y-axis direction in fig. 2 is the direction of the main optical axis, and can also be called as the module length direction, and the z-axis direction is the module height direction). Meanwhile, the asymmetric guide structure of the embodiment adopts the linear guide rod, so that the two movable mirror groups of the optical zoom module can move along the same straight line more accurately, and the imaging quality of the module is effectively guaranteed.

Further, fig. 4 shows a schematic diagram of the connection relationship between the movable carrier and the bottom plate of the housing in an embodiment of the present application. In this embodiment, the second rail has a flat upper surface. The second rail is a long strip-shaped metal sheet 111, and the upper surface of the metal sheet 111 and the lower surface of the movable carrier 41 are supported by balls 112. Generally, the module housing 100 is manufactured by a molding process (or a plastic processing process such as injection molding), and the smoothness of the surface of the metal sheet 111 is usually higher than that of a plastic member, so that a more flat surface can be manufactured, and the movement of the movable lens group is always kept on the same straight line. Meanwhile, the metal sheet 111 is used as the surface of the second rail, so that the resistance of the movable carrier 41 to move can be reduced, the driving force requirement on the driving element is reduced, and the size of the device is reduced. It should be noted that the metal sheet 111 is not the only implementation way for the second rail, and in other embodiments of the present application, the second rail may also be directly disposed on the bottom plate of the module housing (i.e., the housing bottom plate 110). For example, when the module housing is manufactured, the flatness of the corresponding region of the module base plate can be improved by selecting a highly-flat mold, or the flatness of the corresponding region of the module base plate can be improved by polishing the corresponding region of the module base plate, so as to form the second rail. In some embodiments of the present application, the second track may be provided in sections, each second track section (each second track section being a separate metal sheet) corresponding to a movable carrier. In other embodiments, the second track may be a unitary piece of metal, with each movable carrier corresponding to a different section of the piece of metal.

Further, in an embodiment of a variation of the present application, the second rail may be a guide groove formed in the bottom plate of the housing, the ball is disposed in the guide groove and adapted to roll along the guide groove, a guiding direction of the guide groove is parallel to the linear guide, and a top surface of the ball supports a bottom surface of the movable carrier. The cross-sectional shape of the guide groove may be curved to provide a better fit with the ball. It should be noted that, in terms of collimation, the machining precision of the bottom plate of the housing may not reach the level of the linear guide rod, so that during zooming movement, the ball may have drift (or shift) in the x-axis direction, but due to the limiting effect of the linear guide rod on the other side, the moving path of the movable carrier may still maintain high linearity. That is, the deviation of the ball position does not affect the degree of collimation of the moving path of the movable carrier. In this embodiment, the guide groove is formed on the upper surface of the bottom plate of the housing, and the opening of the guide groove faces upward. In one example, the guide groove may have two groove sides and a bottom, the groove sides being perpendicular to the groove bottom. In another example, the guide groove may have an arc-shaped face adapted to the rolling surface for better adaptation to the ball. The bottom surface of the guide groove or the arc-shaped surface thereof may be regarded as a part of the upper surface of the bottom plate of the housing, and in this embodiment, the bottom surface of the guide groove or the arc-shaped surface thereof may be regarded as the upper surface of the second rail. The upper surface of the second track and the lower surface of the movable carrier are supported by the balls 112, so that the position limitation in the z-axis direction is realized, that is, the movement automation degree of the movable carrier relative to the second track is limited in the xoy plane, and the movement does not occur in the z-axis direction. Further, the movable carrier is also restricted in the x-axis direction (i.e., the movable carrier does not move in the x-axis direction) due to the guiding action of the linear guide on the other side, so that the degree of freedom of movement of the movable carrier is practically restricted in the y-axis direction, i.e., coincides with the direction of the linear guide. In this embodiment, the guide grooves and the lower surfaces of the corresponding movable carriers together form an accommodating structure for accommodating the balls. It should be noted that in some embodiments of the present application, the guiding slot may be divided into multiple segments (i.e. into a plurality of collinear sub-guiding slots), each segment corresponding to a movable carrier, while in other embodiments, the guiding slot may also be a continuous guiding slot, and different movable carriers respectively correspond to different segments of the continuous guiding slot. That is, the second track may be divided into a plurality of segments, or may be a continuous complete track.

Further, still referring to fig. 4, in one embodiment of the present application, the bottom surfaces of the movable carriers 41 (e.g., the second carrier 40 and the third carrier 50) are each provided with a recess, respectively, the opening of the recess faces downward, and the balls 112 are received in the recesses. In fig. 4, a boss 113 may be formed at the bottom of the movable carrier 41, and in the bottom view, the boss may be annular so as to fit the peripheral edge of the ball. That is, the groove with the downward opening may be formed in the boss, the ball 113 is disposed in the groove in the boss 113, and the groove may limit the ball to prevent the ball from slipping. In this embodiment, the groove and the metal sheet 111 together form a receiving structure for receiving the ball 112. It should be noted that the boss 113 is not essential to the present application, and in a modified embodiment, the boss 113 may be eliminated, for example, the lower surface of the movable carrier 41 may be a plane with a circular groove (in a tilted view, the circumference of the groove is circular), the opening of the circular groove is downward, and a ball is located between the groove and the upper surface of the second track. Further, in this embodiment, the balls may move on the second track when the movable carrier moves under the guide action of the guide rod side. The balls themselves support in the z-axis direction, so that the two sides (i.e., the first side a and the second side B) of the second carrier 40 and the third carrier 50 are balanced, thereby ensuring the moving accuracy. Meanwhile, since the second rail is disposed at the bottom of the second and

third carriers

40 and 50, the provision of the second rail does not increase the width (i.e., the dimension in the x-axis direction) of the second and

third carriers

40 and 50. Therefore, the camera module of the present embodiment can reduce the width (i.e., the dimension in the x-axis direction) compared to the case where the guide bars are arranged bilaterally, thereby contributing to the miniaturization of the module. In this embodiment, the second rail may be a strip-shaped metal sheet disposed on the upper surface of the bottom plate of the housing, but the application is not limited thereto. In another embodiment of the present application, the second rail may be a guide groove formed on the bottom surface of the housing, and in this embodiment, the guide groove and the downward-opening groove of the lower surface of the movable carrier together form a receiving structure for receiving the ball.

Further, in an embodiment of the present application, in the optical zoom module, the number of the linear guide rods is one. Compared with a structure with multiple guide rods, the number of the guide rods is less, so that the occupied volume of the guide rods and the adaptive structure of the guide rods can be reduced, and the volume of the optical zoom module is reduced. However, it should be noted that in other embodiments of the present application, the number of the linear guide rods may be two or more. For example, two linear guides may be arranged at different heights on the first side, each extending through the second and third carriers. These variant embodiments with multiple linear guides can still reduce the width (i.e. the dimension in the x-direction) of the optical zoom module, since all linear guides are arranged on the same side of the module housing, and the second carrier 40 and the third carrier 50 are supported on the other side by the second track and balls, thus contributing to the miniaturization of the module.

Further, fig. 5 shows a schematic perspective view of an optical zoom module of the present application after removing three sub-lenses. Fig. 6 shows a schematic perspective view of the optical zoom module taken along the axis of the linear guide. For simplicity of illustration, only the movable carriers (i.e., the second carrier 40 and the third carrier 50) and the housing bottom plate 110 are shown in fig. 6. Referring to fig. 5 and 6, in one embodiment of the present application, at the first side a, each of the movable carriers (e.g., the second carrier 40 and the third carrier 50) has a guide bar fitting through-hole, and the linear guide bar passes through the guide bar fitting through-hole of each of the movable carriers in turn. At least one annular accommodating cavity 210 is formed between the inner side surface of the guide rod adapting through hole and the linear guide rod 200, the annular accommodating cavity 210 is provided with a plurality of second balls 211, and the second balls 211 surround the linear guide rod 200 so as to reduce the friction force when the movable carrier slides along the linear guide rod.

Further, in an embodiment of the present application, the optical zoom module is a periscopic optical zoom module. Fig. 7 shows a periscopic optical zoom module in an embodiment of the present application. Referring to fig. 7, in the present embodiment, the periscopic optical zoom module 2000 includes a module housing 100, a light turning element 70, a first carrier, a second carrier 40, and a third carrier 50 installed in the module housing 100, and a first sub-lens 10, a second sub-lens 20, and a third sub-lens 30 respectively installed in the first carrier, the second carrier 40, and the third carrier 50. Wherein the second carrier 40 and the third carrier 50 are movable carriers. The first carrier is a stationary carrier. The first carrier may be formed directly on the module housing. In fig. 7, the first carrier may be a fixed lens holder 150 formed at the module case 100. One side (e.g., first side a) of each movable carrier has a guide bar fitting hole from which at least one linear guide bar 200 penetrates all of the movable carriers (second carrier 40 and third carrier 50 in this embodiment). The bottom surface of the other side (e.g., the second side B) of each movable carrier is provided with a ball (specifically, the ball may be disposed in a groove on the bottom surface of the movable carrier), and the upper surface of the bottom plate of the module case 100 may be provided with a second rail, the upper surface of which is flat to support the ball and allow the ball to move (including roll and slide) in the xoy plane. In this embodiment, the light turning element 70 is adapted to reflect the incident light from an incident channel to an imaging channel, an optical center of the incident channel forms an incident optical axis, an optical center of the imaging channel forms the main optical axis ax, and the incident optical axis is perpendicular to the main optical axis ax. In this embodiment, the light turning element 70 can rotate the incident light by 90 degrees, so as to reduce the size of the module occupied in the thickness direction of the mobile phone (or other electronic devices).

Further, fig. 8 shows a positional relationship of the optical elements in one embodiment of the present application. Referring to fig. 7 and 8 in combination, in the periscopic optical zoom module 2000, the first carrier is a fixed carrier, and a fixed sub-lens (i.e., the first sub-lens 10) is mounted in the fixed carrier. A zoom sub-lens (i.e., the second sub-lens 20) is mounted in the second carrier 40, and the zoom sub-lens has a zoom lens group, in this embodiment, the focal length of the whole imaging system (i.e., the focal length of the whole optical zoom module) can be adjusted by moving the zoom lens group along the optical axis. The third carrier 50 has a compensation sub-lens (i.e. the third sub-lens 30) mounted therein, and the compensation sub-lens has a compensation lens group mounted therein. In this embodiment, the compensation lens group realizes focusing of the imaging system to compensate for focus offset caused by movement of the zoom lens group. In this embodiment, the fixed sub-lens, the zoom sub-lens and the compensation sub-lens are sequentially arranged from the object side to the image side along the main optical axis ax (refer to fig. 1 in combination). The light turning element 70 may be disposed at a position closest to an object, and a stator lens is disposed at an exit end of the light turning element 70.

Further, still referring to fig. 8, in an embodiment of the present application, in the optical zoom module, the optical zoom module may further include a photosensitive element 80, and a photosensitive surface of the photosensitive element 80 is substantially perpendicular to the main optical axis ax (refer to fig. 1 in combination), that is, the photosensitive surface is substantially perpendicular to the axis of the linear guide.

Further, in an embodiment of the present application, in the optical zoom module, the linear guide is fixed to the module housing, and on the first side a, the movable carrier is supported by the guide and a gap is formed between a bottom surface of the movable carrier and a bottom plate of the module housing, that is, on the first side a, the movable carrier may be suspended.

Further, fig. 9 shows a perspective view of the module housing, i.e. the linear guide, in an embodiment of the present application. Referring to fig. 9, in the present embodiment, the module case includes a case bottom plate 110, case sidewalls 120 and 130, and a cover. Wherein, with reference to fig. 3 in combination, the

housing side walls

120, 130 are located at the first side a and the second side B of the module housing, respectively, a cover is not shown in fig. 9, which cover is typically covered at the housing floor or housing side walls, so that the module housing forms an enclosed structure in order to protect the various elements inside. Further, fig. 10 shows a schematic perspective view of two movable carriers. Referring to fig. 10, in the present embodiment, the movable carrier includes a first slider mount 61, a second slider 62, and a carrier base plate 63 connecting the first slider mount 61 and the second slider 62. Wherein the first slide mount 61 is located at the first side a of the module housing. The second slide 62 is located on the second side B of the module housing. The first slide mounting member 61, the second slide member 62 and the carrier base plate 63 form a U-shaped groove in which each of the sub-lenses is mounted. The sub-lens may include a lens barrel and a lens group (i.e., a lens group) mounted in the lens barrel. For example, fig. 11 shows a perspective view of the third sub-lens. Referring to fig. 11, the third sub-lens 30 may include a lens barrel 31 and a lens group (typically, a lens group consisting of a plurality of lenses) mounted therein. The lens group is assembled through a lens cone. The outer side surface of the lens barrel is fixed (e.g., bonded) to the inner side surface of the U-shaped groove. The carrier bottom plate 63 of the movable carrier has a gap with the housing bottom plate 110.

Further, still referring to fig. 9 and 10, in one embodiment of the present application, the module housing includes a housing bottom plate 110,

housing sidewalls

120, 130, and a cover. The housing sidewall 120 has a stopper structure 140, and the stopper structure 140 may be disposed between the first slide mounts 61 of two adjacent movable carriers (e.g., the second carrier 40 and the third carrier 50), and the linear guide 200 passes through the first slide mounts 61 and the stopper structure 140 of at least two movable carriers. The limiting structures 140 in this embodiment can limit the moving strokes of the second carrier 40 and the third carrier 50 within their respective preset ranges. Further, in this embodiment, the end surface of the first sliding mounting part 61 and/or the end surface of the limiting structure 140 may be provided with a buffer layer 300. Here, the end surface refers to a surface perpendicular to the axis of the linear guide 200, and in the case of the first slide mount 61, a surface 61a thereof facing the stopper mechanism is an end surface thereof, and in the case of the stopper structure 140, a surface 140a thereof facing the first slide mount 61 is an end surface thereof, and the buffer material 300 is provided at the end surface of the first slide mount 61 and/or the stopper structure 140, so that the movable carrier can be prevented from colliding with the stopper structure when moving. In particular, the inventors of the present application have found that a fast movement of the movable carrier is required in order to achieve a fast zoom function. This results in the drive element needing to provide a large drive force to the movable carrier, which may cause the movable carrier to move excessively beyond the position required for zooming. Although the position of the movable carrier can be adjusted back by changing the direction of the driving force in practical use, the actual experience of the user is still affected by the situation. For example, in some cases, the movement is too large due to too large instantaneous driving force, which may cause the movable carrier to collide with the limit structure, and the collision will make a sound, which will negatively affect the user (consumer) experience. In addition, for the optical zoom module based on the linear guide rod, since the moving resistance of the movable carrier is greatly reduced, when a user does not zoom and shoot, if the terminal device (such as a mobile phone) carrying the optical zoom module is subjected to a large external impact/collision force, the movable carrier may collide with the limit structure, and then the mobile phone will make an abnormal sound, which is not fast for the user and affects the use experience. In this embodiment, however, the buffer material (the buffer layer 300 is formed by the buffer material) is provided on the end surface of the first slide attachment member and/or the stopper structure, so that abnormal noise caused by collision between the movable carrier and the stopper structure can be effectively avoided.

Further, in another embodiment of the present application, in the optical zoom camera module, at the first side a (i.e., the side having the linear guide), the housing sidewall has a limiting structure, the limiting structure is disposed between the first sliding mounts of two adjacent movable carriers, and the guide rod passes through the first sliding mounts and the limiting structure of at least two movable carriers. And corresponding lenses are arranged in the U-shaped grooves of the two adjacent movable carriers. The lens barrel may include a lens barrel, an end surface of which may be provided with a buffer layer (referring to fig. 11, the buffer layer 300 may be provided at an end surface of the lens barrel 31), and a lens group mounted in the lens barrel. The buffer layer is arranged on the end face of the lens barrel, so that the movable carrier can be prevented from colliding with the limiting structure in the zooming process.

Further, in one embodiment of the present application, the movable carrier is driven by a magnet coil. In particular, both sides of the optical zoom module (i.e. the first side a and the second side B) may be arranged with drive elements. Specifically, the magnet may be provided on an inner surface 121 of the case side wall 120 (see fig. 9), and the coil may be provided on an outer surface 61b of the movable carrier (see fig. 10). The inner side 121 refers to a side surface of the case sidewall 120 close to the lens set (i.e. close to the optical axis), and the outer side 61b refers to a side surface of the movable carrier away from the lens set (i.e. away from the optical axis). Fig. 9 and 10 show only the inner surface of the case side wall and the outer surface of the movable carrier on the first side a, and it should be noted that the magnet and the coil may be provided on the inner surface of the case side wall and the outer surface of the movable carrier on the second side B. In another embodiment, the drive element may also be arranged on only one side (e.g. may be arranged on only one side with the linear guide).

Further, still referring to fig. 10, in one embodiment of the present application, the movable carrier includes a first slide mount 61 at the first side a, a second slide 62 at the second side B, and a carrier base plate 63 connecting the first slide mount 61 and the second slide 62, the first slide mount 61, the second slide 62, and the carrier base plate 63 forming a U-shaped slot in which the sub-lens is mounted. The magnets are provided on the inner side of the side wall of the housing on the first side a of the module (i.e., the side having the linear guide), and the coils are provided on the outer side of the first slidable mounting part 61 of the movable carrier.

Further, still referring to fig. 10, in an embodiment of the present application, a bottom surface of each of the second sliding portions 62 (i.e., the second sliding portion 62 of each movable carrier) has a groove (in the present embodiment, the groove may be provided in the annular boss 113, refer to fig. 4 in combination) with an opening facing downward, the ball is provided in the groove, and the bottom surface of the second sliding portion 62 (i.e., a groove bottom surface of the groove, which actually corresponds to a top surface of the ball due to the downward opening of the groove in the present embodiment) and an upper surface of the second rail are supported by the ball. In this embodiment, the second rail may be a separate metal sheet 111 (e.g., a steel sheet), and the metal sheet 111 may be disposed on an upper surface of a housing bottom plate 110 (refer to fig. 9 in combination) of the module housing. The second track has a magnetically conductive material (e.g., the second track is made of or attached with a magnetically conductive material). In this embodiment, a second magnet 114 may be disposed above the groove for accommodating the ball (that is, the second magnet 114 may be located directly above the ball), and a magnetic force may be formed between the second magnet 114 and the second rail (the metal sheet 111), so that the groove bottom surface of the groove (actually corresponding to the top surface of the ball due to the downward opening of the groove) and the upper surface of the second rail clamp the ball, so as to prevent the movable carrier from sliding along the linear guide in an uncontrolled manner when the driving element of the movable carrier is not powered. When the driving element is electrified, the driving force along the linear guide rod direction (namely the y-axis direction) can overcome the friction force of the balls under the action of the driving element, and the movable carrier is pushed to move in the y-axis direction. In addition, the magnetic force formed between the second magnet 114 and the second track (metal sheet 111) also helps to limit the balls in the grooves and prevent the balls from slipping.

Further, in the present application, the buffer layer may be disposed on an end surface of the position limiting structure, or may be disposed on an end surface of the movable carrier. Generally, the buffer layer may be provided between an end surface of the stopper structure and an end surface of the movable carrier. Further, the position limiting structure may be provided not only between adjacent movable carriers, but also between the photosensitive assembly support and the movable carrier, or between the fixed carrier support (or the fixed lens support) and the movable carrier. For example, fig. 12 shows a partial perspective view of a camera module in an embodiment of the present application. Referring to fig. 12, in the present embodiment, a buffer layer 300 may be disposed between the end surface of the movable carrier (the second carrier 40) and the end surface of the fixed lens support 150, and a buffer layer 300 may also be disposed between the end surface of the photosensitive assembly support (not shown in fig. 12) and the end surface of the movable carrier (for example, the third carrier 50), which may further prevent the terminal device (for example, a mobile phone) from making a sound or vibration due to collision of the movable carrier during use, so as to enhance user experience. The fixed lens support 150 and the photosensitive element support may be part of the module housing 100 and are integrally formed with the module housing 100. The fixed lens supporting member can limit the moving stroke of the movable carrier at the front end (i.e., one end of the object side), and the photosensitive assembly supporting member can limit the moving stroke of the movable carrier at the rear end (i.e., one end of the image side), so that both the fixed lens supporting member and the photosensitive assembly supporting member can be regarded as a limit structure.

Further, in the present application, the sub-lens combination of the periscopic optical zoom module is not limited to the combination of one fixed lens and two movable lenses. For example, fig. 13 shows a schematic optical path diagram of a periscopic optical zoom module according to a modified embodiment of the present application. Referring to fig. 13, in this modified embodiment, one light turning element and three movable lenses may be included, and the three movable lenses are respectively mounted on three movable carriers 41. Also, in this modified embodiment, the module may have two linear guides 201 respectively located at different heights, each of which penetrates through three movable carriers 41. In this embodiment, the two linear guides 201 are located on the same side of the module, and the other side of the module can be provided with a second track and a corresponding ball structure, so as to support the movable carrier in the z-axis direction, so that the two sides of the movable carrier can be balanced.

Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used for illustrating the technical solutions of the present invention and are not limited. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. An optical zoom module, comprising:

a module housing;

a plurality of lens groups coaxially arranged along an axis;

a linear guide bar parallel to the axis and disposed at a first side of the module housing;

a plurality of carriers, each of which has one lens group mounted therein, at least two carriers of the plurality of carriers being movable carriers, the linear guide rod passing through at least two of the movable carriers so that at least two of the movable carriers can move along the linear guide rod, respectively; and

and the second rail is positioned on a second side of the module shell, the second side is opposite to the first side, the second rail is parallel to the linear guide rod, and the upper surface of the second rail and the lower surface of the movable carrier are supported through balls.

2. The optical zoom module of claim 1, wherein the second rail has a flat upper surface.

3. The optical zoom module of claim 2, wherein the second track is an elongated metal sheet, and an upper surface of the metal sheet and a lower surface of the movable carrier are supported by the balls.

4. The optical zoom module of claim 2, wherein the second track is formed directly on an upper surface of a bottom plate of the module housing.

5. The optical zoom module of claim 2, wherein a bottom surface of the movable carrier is provided with a downwardly open recess at the second side of the module housing, the ball being received in the recess, the ball being sandwiched between the recess and the second track.

6. The optical zoom module of claim 1, wherein each of the movable carriers has a guide rod fitting through-hole at a first side of the module housing, the guide rod passing through the guide rod fitting through-hole of each of the movable carriers in turn.

7. The optical zoom module of claim 6, wherein at least one annular receiving cavity is formed between the inner side surface of the guide rod fitting through hole and the guide rod, the annular receiving cavity having a plurality of second balls, and the second balls are wound around the guide rod.

8. The optical zoom module of claim 1, wherein the optical zoom module is a periscopic optical zoom module.

9. The optical zoom module of claim 1, further comprising a light-turning element adapted to reflect incident light from an incident channel to an imaging channel, an optical center of the incident channel forming an incident optical axis, and an optical center of the imaging channel forming the principal optical axis, the incident optical axis being perpendicular to the principal optical axis.

10. The optical zoom module of claim 9, wherein the plurality of carriers comprises a fixed carrier and two movable carriers, the fixed carrier having fixed lens groups mounted therein, the two movable carriers having zoom lens groups and compensation lens groups mounted therein, respectively; the zoom lens group is suitable for adjusting the focal length of the whole imaging system, and the compensation lens group realizes the focusing of the imaging system so as to compensate the focus offset caused by the movement of the zoom lens group.

11. The optical zoom module of claim 10, wherein the fixed mirror groups, the zoom mirror groups and the compensation mirror groups are arranged in order from an object side to an image side.

12. The optical zoom module of claim 11, further comprising a photosensitive assembly, wherein the photosensitive assembly comprises a circuit board and a photosensitive chip mounted on the surface of the circuit board, the side of the circuit board has a flexible connection band, the flexible connection band is bent to the first side or the second side of the module housing, the first side or the second side of the module housing has a second circuit board, and the second circuit board is electrically connected to the circuit board through the flexible connection band.

13. The optical zoom module of claim 2, wherein the guide bar is fixed to the module housing; the module housing includes a housing floor, housing sidewalls, and a cover.

14. The optical zoom module of claim 1, wherein the second rail is a guide groove formed in the bottom plate of the housing, the ball is disposed in the guide groove and adapted to roll along the guide groove, the guide direction of the guide groove is parallel to the linear guide, and the top surface of the rolling groove supports the bottom surface of the movable carrier.

15. The optical zoom module of claim 14, wherein the movable carrier comprises a first slide mount on the first side, a second slide on the second side, and a carrier base plate connecting the first slide mount and the second slide, the first slide mount, the second slide, and the base plate forming a U-shaped channel in which the mirror group is mounted.

16. The optical zoom module of claim 15, wherein the lens group is assembled through a lens barrel, and an outer side surface of the lens barrel is fixed to an inner side surface of the U-shaped groove.

17. The optical zoom module of claim 15, wherein the carrier chassis and the housing chassis have a spacing therebetween.

18. The optical zoom module of claim 15, wherein at the first side, the housing sidewall has a stopper structure disposed between the first slide mounts of two adjacent movable carriers, and the guide rod passes through the first slide mounts and the stopper structure of at least two movable carriers.

19. The optical zoom module of claim 18, wherein an end surface of the first slide mount and/or an end surface of the stop structure is provided with a buffer layer.

20. The optical zoom module of claim 16, wherein the housing sidewall has a stopper structure on the first side, the stopper structure being disposed between the first slide mounts of two adjacent movable carriers, the guide rod passing through the first slide mounts and the stopper structure of at least two of the movable carriers;

and buffer layers are arranged on the end surfaces of the lens cones in the U-shaped grooves of the two adjacent movable carriers.

21. The optical zoom module of claim 14, wherein the movable carrier is driven by a magneto coil.

22. The optical zoom module of claim 21, wherein the magnet is disposed on an inner side surface of the side wall of the housing, and the coil is disposed on an outer side surface of the movable carrier.

23. The optical zoom module of claim 21, wherein the movable carrier comprises a first slide mount, a second slide, and a carrier base connecting the first slide mount and the second slide, wherein the first slide mount is located on the first side of the module housing and the second slide is located on the second side of the module housing; the first sliding installation piece, the second sliding part and the bottom plate form a U-shaped groove, and the lens group is installed in the U-shaped groove;

the magnet is provided on an inner side surface of the case side wall on the first side, and the coil is provided on an outer side surface of the first slider of the movable carrier.

24. The optical zoom module of claim 15, wherein a bottom surface of each of the second sliding portions has a groove, the ball is disposed in the groove, and the bottom surface of the second sliding portion and the upper surface of the second rail are supported by the ball.

25. The optical zoom module of claim 24, wherein the second track comprises a magnetically permeable material; in the second sliding portion, a second magnet is attached above the recess, and the magnetic force between the second magnet and the second rail causes the recess and the second rail to sandwich the ball.