KR20120066391A - Camera module - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A camera module is provided to implement a spacer separating into lens and image sensor by a simple manufacturing process. CONSTITUTION: A camera module comprises: a lens assembly(20) having one or more lenses(21-24); and a housing(10) having a lens assembly accommodating portion(11) and image sensor assembly accommodating portion (12). The housing has a spacer(15) formed between the lens assembly accommodating portion and image sensor assembly accommodating portion.

Description

Camera module {Camera module}

The present invention relates to a camera module, and more particularly, to a camera that can adjust the focal length between the lens and the image sensor by the housing by improving the structure of the housing.

Recently, technologies of various mobile devices, which are easy to carry and have enhanced transmission and reception of voice information and data, have been rapidly developed and distributed. In particular, a camera module based on a digital camera technology is merged into a portable wireless communication terminal, so that moving images of a subject, Camera module-equipped terminals incorporating camera functions of taking still images and transmitting them to the counterpart are commercially available.

The camera module mounted on the small portable terminal includes a lens, an image sensor, and a housing for accommodating them, and a spacer is provided between the lens and the image sensor to space the image sensor by a predetermined focal length.

In order to implement such a spacer, the outer portion of the lens is processed to be thicker than the portion where the lens surface is formed and used as a spacer, or the spacer is manufactured as a separate member and disposed between the lens and the image sensor when assembling the camera module. Is being used.

However, when the outer portion of the lens is used as a spacer, there is a problem that the size of the lens becomes large and the lens processing becomes difficult, and when the spacer is manufactured as a separate member, there is a problem that the process is complicated and assembly accuracy is low.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a camera module capable of realizing a spacer spaced apart between a lens and an image sensor through a simple manufacturing process.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a camera module including at least one lens, and the lens includes a lens assembly including a lens function and a flange forming an outer portion of the lens function; An image sensor assembly receiving light incident through the lens assembly; And a housing including a lens assembly accommodating portion accommodating the lens assembly and an image sensor assembly accommodating portion accommodating the image sensor assembly, wherein the housing is formed between the lens assembly accommodating portion and the image sensor assembly accommodating portion; One of the at least one lens may include a spacer protruding toward the center of the lens function of the lens located on the image side.

In addition, in the camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention, the spacer may be formed longer in the horizontal direction than the flange portion of the lens located on the image side.

In addition, in the camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention, the spacer may have a thickness according to a focal length of the lens assembly preset.

In addition, in the camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention, the upper portion of the lens assembly receiving portion may be opened.

In addition, the camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include a capping member covering the flange portion of the object-side lens of the lens assembly.

In this case, the capping member may include an opening that opens the lens function of the object-side lens, a cover part covering the flange of the object-side lens, and a coupling part that couples to the housing.

In addition, the capping member may be screwed to the housing.

According to the camera module according to the present invention, a spacer spaced between the lens and the image sensor can be implemented in a simple manufacturing process.

1 is a cross-sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a view showing a coupling portion of the lens assembly and the housing in the camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a view showing a step of assembling the lens assembly in the camera module assembly method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a view showing a process of assembling the image sensor assembly in the camera module assembly method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a view showing a step of assembling the capping member in the method of assembling the camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, with reference to the drawings will be described in detail a specific embodiment of the present invention. However, the spirit of the present invention is not limited to the embodiments presented, and those skilled in the art who understand the spirit of the present invention may further deteriorate other inventions or the present invention by adding, changing, or deleting other elements within the scope of the same idea. Other embodiments included within the scope of the invention can be easily proposed, but it will also be included within the scope of the invention.

In addition, the component with the same function within the range of the same idea shown by the figure of each embodiment is demonstrated using the same or similar reference numeral.

1 is a cross-sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a view showing a coupling portion of the lens assembly and the housing in the camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1 and 2, a camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a lens assembly 20 including at least one lens, an image sensor assembly 30 receiving light incident from the lens, and a lens. And a housing 10 for receiving the assembly 20 and the image sensor assembly 30.

The lens assembly 20 includes a first lens 21, a second lens 22, a third lens 23, and a fourth lens 24 sequentially formed from an object side to an image side. In the present exemplary embodiment, the lens assembly 20 includes four lenses, but the present invention is not limited thereto and may include four or fewer lenses or four or more lenses.

In this embodiment, the lens assembly 20 is illustrated and described as a structure in which a plurality of lenses are bonded, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and the lens assembly 20 may be a structure in which a plurality of lenses are inserted into the lens barrel and assembled. The structure of can be changed in various ways depending on the design conditions.

A lens is a spherical or aspherical surface made of a transparent material to collect or diverge light incident from an object to form an optical image. Lenses include plastic lenses and glass lenses. Plastic lenses are inexpensive to manufacture and can be mass-produced by injecting and curing resin into molds and fabricated on a wafer scale, then individualized, and glass lenses are advantageous for high resolution. However, since the glass is manufactured by cutting and polishing, the process is complicated, the unit cost is high, and it is difficult to implement a lens other than a spherical or flat surface.

In this embodiment, a plastic lens manufactured on a wafer scale is used. In the first to fourth lenses 21 to 24, lens functional parts 21a to 24a are formed in a spherical or aspherical surface in the center, and lens functional parts 21a to 24a around the lens functional parts 21a to 24a. Flange parts 21b-24b are formed in the outer part of the.

The lens function portions 21a to 24a have a meniscus shape of convex or concave shape toward the object side, a meniscus shape of convex or concave shape toward the image side, or a meniscus shape of concave shape toward the image side in the center portion, It may have a variety of shapes, such as having a meniscus shape of the convex shape toward the upper side. In addition, the flange portions 21b to 24b may also serve as spacers that separate the lens functional portions when bonding adjacent lenses.

The image sensor assembly 30 may be a chip scale package (CSP) including an image sensor chip 32 having an image area in which light passing through the lens assembly 20 is imaged.

Chip scale packages (or chip size packages) are a new type of package that has been developed and proposed in recent years and has many advantages over typical plastic packages. The biggest advantage of a chip scale package is its size. According to the definitions of international semiconductor associations such as the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) and the Electronic Industry Association of Japan (EIAJ), chip-scale packages are generally the classification name for packages that are less than 1.2 times the chip size. Chip-scale packages are mainly used in products that require miniaturization and mobility, such as digital camcorders, mobile phones, notebook computers, memory cards, and so on.These include digital signal processors (DSPs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), and microcontrollers. Semiconductor devices such as) are mounted in a chip scale package. In addition, the use of chip scale packages in which memory devices such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), flash memory, and the like are mounted is being expanded.

The image sensor chip 32 is a device that receives light and converts it into an electrical signal. According to the operation and manufacturing method, it can be classified into CCD sensor chip and CMOS sensor chip. The CCD (Charge Coupled Device) sensor chip is based on an analog circuit, and light entering the lens 101 is scattered in several cells so that each cell stores a charge for the light and determines the degree of contrast based on the magnitude of the charge. This is how the color is sent to the converter. Although it is possible to express vivid image quality, it is widely used in digital cameras that require high image quality due to large data storage capacity and power consumption. Complementary Metal Oxide Semi-conductor (CMOS) sensor chips are integrated semiconductors with analog and digital signal processing circuits in one place. Compared with CCD sensor chip, power consumption is only about 1/10, and the whole necessary part is composed of one chip, making it possible to manufacture smaller products. Recently, due to the improvement of technology level, it has many advantages such as digital camera, camera phone, PMP (Personal Media Player) as well as these advantages.

The image sensor chip 32 includes a wafer 32b having an image sensor 32a disposed on an upper surface thereof, and a lower surface of the image sensor chip 32 connected to a terminal of a main board (not shown) on which a camera module is mounted. The connection member 32c is formed so that it may be.

The connection member 32c may be made of a conductive paste, and specifically, may be a solder paste or a silver epoxy resin. In addition, the connection member 32c may be in the form of a solder ball.

The main substrate may be a printed wire board (PWB), a flexible PWB, or a rigid flexible PWB. In general, PWB refers to a circuit board in which many parts of various types are densely mounted on a plate made of phenol resin or epoxy resin and the circuits connecting the parts are densely shortened on the surface of the resin plate. PWB attaches a thin plate such as copper to one side of phenol resin insulation board or epoxy resin and then etches (corrosion and removes only the circuit on the wire) to form the necessary circuit and attach parts Make a hole. According to the number of wiring circuit surface, it is classified into single-sided board, double-sided board, multi-layer board and so on. In addition, a flexible circuit board (flexible PWB) is a flexible circuit board that can be flexibly responded to when the circuit board needs to move and when the component board needs to be bent or inserted. On the other hand, a rigid flexible PWB in which a rigid portion and a flexible portion are combined may be used.

An infrared cut filter 31 may be formed on an upper surface of the image sensor chip 32, and the infrared cut filter 31 may be formed of a glass wafer.

The infrared cut filter 31 removes the optical signal in the infrared region and receives only the optical signal in the visible region before the optical signal is input to the image sensor through the lens, thereby obtaining an image of a color close to reality.

The housing 10 has an internal space and has a structure in which upper and lower portions are opened. Specifically, the lens assembly receiving part 11 and the image sensor assembly receiving part 12 may be included. The horizontal cross-sectional area of the lens assembly accommodating part 11 may be smaller than the horizontal cross-sectional area of the image sensor assembly accommodating part 12.

The lens assembly 20 is accommodated in the inner space of the lens assembly accommodating part 11, and the lens assembly 20 is directly connected to the lens assembly accommodating part (a state in which the first lens 21 to the fourth lens 24 are bonded to each other). 11) or a lens barrel in which the first lens 21 to the fourth lens 24 are accommodated may be inserted along the inner surface of the lens assembly accommodating part 11.

The upper portion of the lens assembly accommodating portion 11 may be open to allow the lens assembly 20 to be assembled through the upper portion of the housing 10, and the capping member 40 covering the upper opening of the housing 10 may engage. Steps 13 embedded in the side may be formed.

The image sensor assembly 30 is accommodated in the inner space of the image sensor assembly receiver 12, and the image sensor assembly 30 is disposed between the sidewall of the image sensor assembly 30 and the inner side of the image sensor assembly receiver 12. A junction (not shown) may be formed to secure the to the housing 10.

The housing 10 may include a spacer 15 formed to space the predetermined distance between the lens assembly 20 and the image sensor assembly 30 between the lens assembly accommodating portion 11 and the image sensor assembly accommodating portion 12. Can be.

The spacer 15 has a structure protruding from an inner wall of the housing 10 and is integrally formed with the housing 10. The spacer 15 may be formed to have a thickness according to a preset focal length of the lens assembly 20. Here, the thickness means the distance between the upper surface and the lower surface of each lens.

The spacer 15 protrudes from the inner wall surface of the housing 10 toward the lens function portion 24a of the fourth lens 24 located on the image side of the lens assembly 20. That is, the spacer 15 may be formed to have a longer transverse length than the flange portion 24b of the fourth lens 24. Here, the horizontal direction refers to a direction from the center of the lens function to the flange portion or the direction from the flange toward the center of the lens function in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis of the lens assembly.

A capping member 40 may be installed on the housing 10 to cover the flange portion 21b of the first lens 21, which is an object-side lens of the lens assembly 20.

The capping member 40 includes an opening 41 for opening the lens function portion 21a of the first lens 21, a lid portion 42 covering the flange portion 21b of the first lens 21, and a housing ( 10 may include a coupling portion 43 for coupling the capping member 40.

The cover part 42 serves to block unnecessary light incident through the lens assembly 20 together with the housing 10.

The coupling part 43 is inserted between the upper side of the lens assembly 20 and the upper inner side of the housing 10. That is, the space in which the coupling part 43 is inserted is provided by the step 13 formed in the lens assembly accommodating part 11 of the housing 10, and the space formed by the step 13, that is, the lens assembly 20. A coupling portion 43 is inserted into the space between the upper side of the upper side and the upper inner side of the housing 10 to couple the capping member 40 to the housing 10.

In this case, the coupling part 43 may be press-fitted between the upper side surface of the lens assembly 20 and the upper inner side surface of the housing 10. In addition, a screw thread may be formed on the outer surface of the coupling portion 43 and a screw thread may be formed on the upper inner surface of the housing 10 to be coupled by screwing them. The present invention is not limited thereto, and various coupling forms may be applied.

3 is a view illustrating a process of assembling a lens assembly in a method of assembling a camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a view illustrating a process of assembling an image sensor assembly, and FIG. 5 is a capping member. It is a figure which shows the process of assembling.

Hereinafter, a method of assembling a camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5.

First, a method of assembling the camera module will be described in detail. After inserting and fixing the lens assembly 20 inside the housing 10, and inserting and fixing the image sensor assembly 30, the capping member 40 is installed. . At this time, the capping member 40 may be installed after assembling the image sensor assembly 30 or may be installed before assembling the image sensor assembly 30.

Referring to FIG. 3, the lens assembly 20 is inserted through an open upper portion of the housing 10. The lens assembly 20 is inserted along the inner surface of the lens assembly accommodating part 11 of the housing 10 so that the upper portion of the first lens 21 is positioned above the housing 10.

The lens assembly 20 is fixed by filling a thermosetting adhesive such as epoxy between the lens assembly accommodating part 11 and the lens assembly 20 through the step 13 formed at the upper portion of the housing 10.

Referring to FIG. 4, the image sensor assembly 30 is inserted through the open bottom of the housing 10. In this case, the upper part of the housing 10 to which the lens assembly 20 is fixed may face downward, and then the image sensor assembly 30 may be inserted.

When the image sensor assembly 30 is inserted, the focus and tilt adjustment may be performed while sliding the image sensor assembly 30 along the inner surface of the image sensor assembly accommodating portion 12.

The image sensor assembly 30 may be fixed to the housing 10 by filling a thermosetting adhesive such as an epoxy adhesive between the image sensor assembly accommodating part 12 and the image sensor assembly 30.

Referring to FIG. 5, the capping member 40 is assembled to cover the upper portion of the housing 10. The coupling part 43 is inserted into a space between the upper inner wall surface of the housing 10 formed by the step 13 and the side surface of the lens assembly 20. At this time, the cover part 42 is inserted until it contacts the flange part 21b of the first lens 21.

The fixing of the capping member 40 may apply an adhesive to the outer surface of the coupling portion 43 or the inner wall surface of the housing 10 to press-fit the capping member 40, or the outer surface of the coupling portion 43 and the housing ( 10) It can be screwed by forming a thread on the inner wall surface.

This completes the camera module according to the present embodiment.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, in the present invention, the coupling method of the capping member and the assembly order of the capping members are exemplary, and various assembly methods may be used or the assembly order may be changed. Accordingly, the true scope of the present invention should be determined by the appended claims.

10: housing 11: lens assembly receptacle
12: Image sensor assembly accommodating part 13: step
15: spacer 20: lens assembly
21: first lens 22: second lens
23: third lens 24: fourth lens
30: image sensor assembly 31: infrared cut filter
32: image sensor chip 40: capping member
41: opening part 42: cover part
43: coupling part

Claims (7)

A lens assembly including at least one lens, the lens including a lens function and a flange forming an outer portion of the lens function;
An image sensor assembly receiving light incident through the lens assembly; And
A housing having a lens assembly accommodating portion accommodating the lens assembly and an image sensor assembly accommodating portion accommodating the image sensor assembly;
The housing may include a spacer formed between the lens assembly accommodating portion and the image sensor assembly accommodating portion and protruding toward a center of a lens functional portion of a lens positioned on an image side of the at least one lens. Camera module. The method of claim 1,
The spacer is a camera module, characterized in that the horizontal length is formed longer than the flange portion of the lens located on the upper side. The method of claim 1,
And the spacer has a thickness according to a focal length of the lens assembly. The method of claim 1,
The camera module, characterized in that the upper portion of the lens assembly receiving portion is open. The method of claim 1,
And a capping member covering the flange portion of the object-side lens of the lens assembly. The method of claim 5,
The capping member includes an opening for opening the lens function of the object-side lens, a cover portion covering the flange of the object-side lens, and a coupling portion for coupling to the housing. The method of claim 5,
And the capping member is screwed to the housing.

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