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EP-3605177-B1 - SPLIT LENS AND CAMERA MODULE AND ELECTRONIC APPARATUS

EP3605177B1EP 3605177 B1EP3605177 B1EP 3605177B1EP-3605177-B1

Inventors

  • WANG, MINGZHU
  • WANG, Shoujie
  • GUO, NAN
  • DING, LIANG
  • CHEN, Feifan
  • LIU, CHUNMEI
  • MEI, QIMIN

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20180322

Claims (14)

  1. A split lens, comprising: at least a first lens group (10, 10A) comprising at least a lens (111, 112, 113) and a first lens barrel (12, 12A), wherein said lens is mounted in said first lens barrel (12, 12A); at least a second lens group (20, 20A) comprising at least a lens (211, 212, 213) and a second lens barrel (22, 22A), wherein said lens is mounted in said second lens barrel (22, 22A); and at least a light shielding element (32, 32A) disposed between the lens at the bottom of said first lens group (10, 10A) and the lens at the top of said second lens group (20, 20A) to form a predetermined light path between said first lens group (10, 10A, 10B, 10C, 10D) and said second lens group (20, 20A) and is disposed between said first lens group (10, 10A) and said second lens group (20, 20A), wherein the light shielding element (32, 32A) is a coating layer applied to a surface of the lens, wherein one of said light shielding elements (32, 32A) is disposed on a top surface of said lens at an upper position of said second lens group (20, 20A) or is disposed on a bottom surface of said lens at a bottom position of said first lens group (10, 10A), and wherein the light shielding element (32, 32A) is formed by one of the methods of coating, spraying, and silk screen printing, characterized in that said first lens barrel (12, 12A) further comprises a first main support portion and a first retention portion (120, 120A) extending from the main support portion, and said second lens barrel (22, 22A) further comprises a second retention portion (220, 220A), wherein said first retention portion (120, 120A) and said second retention portion (220, 220A) are connected with each other, such that said first lens barrel (12, 12A) and said second lens barrel (22, 22A) are assembled to form an integrated lens configuration, wherein said first main support portion of said first lens barrel (12, 12A) extends along an optical axis, and said first retention portion (120, 120A) is a protrusion formed on a bottom end portion of said first main support portion and protruding in a direction which is perpendicular to the optical axis and away from the optical axis, and said first retention portion (120, 120A) is located on and connected to said second retention portion (220, 220A).
  2. The split lens, as recited in claim 1, wherein three of said light shielding elements (32, 32A) are respectively disposed on the bottom surfaces of three lenses at a bottom position of the first lens group (10, 10A), and two of said light shielding elements (32, 32A) are respectively disposed on the bottom surfaces of two lenses at an upper position of the second lens group (20, 20A).
  3. The split lens, as recited in claim 1, wherein said light shielding element (32, 32A) is disposed between two adjacent lenses which are located at said first lens group (10, 10A) and said second lens group (20, 20A) respectively, preferably said light shielding element (32, 32A) is disposed on the bottom surface of the upper lens of the two adjacent lenses or on the top surface of the bottom lens of the two adjacent lenses.
  4. The split lens, as recited in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said first lens group (10, 10A) and said second lens group (20, 20A) are assembled through active calibration, so that the optical axes of the lenses in the first lens barrel (12, 12A) and the second lens barrel (22, 22A) are uniform and coaxially aligned.
  5. The split lens, as recited in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a diameter of a bottom portion of said first lens barrel (12, 12A) is smaller than a diameter of an upper portion of said second lens barrel (22, 22A), such that said first retention portion (120, 120A) of said first lens barrel (12, 12A) is configured to fit into said second retention portion (220, 220A) of said second lens barrel (22, 22A) so as to couple said first lens barrel (12, 12A) with said second lens barrel (22, 22A).
  6. The split lens, as recited in claim 1, wherein said first retention portion (120, 120A) is defined at a bottom end portion of said first lens barrel (12, 12A), said second retention portion (220, 220A) is defined at a top end portion of said second lens barrel (22, 22A), wherein said first retention portion (120, 120A) and said second retention portion (220, 220A) are connected with each other via a connecting element (42, 42A) so as to securely couple said first lens barrel (12, 12A) and said second lens barrel (22, 22A) with each other.
  7. The split lens, as recited in claim 6, wherein said first retention portion (120, 120A) is defined at said bottom end portion of said first lens barrel (12, 12A) having an increased diameter, wherein a bottom lateral side of said first retention portion (120, 120A) is adhesively affixed to a top side of said second retention portion (220, 220A), or an outer side of said first retention portion (120, 120A) is adhesively affixed to a top side of said second retention portion (220, 220A).
  8. The split lens, as recited in claim 1, wherein said second lens barrel (22, 22A) further has a retention groove (223D) formed at a top side of said second lens barrel (22, 22A) corresponding to said first retention portion (120, 120A) of said first lens barrel (12, 12A), wherein a connecting element (42, 42A) is filled in said retention groove (223D) to couple said first retention portion (120, 120A) and said second retention portion (220, 220A) with each other.
  9. The split lens, as recited in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said first retention portion (120, 120A) is protruded from an outer lateral side of said first lens barrel (12, 12A), wherein said second retention portion (220, 220A) is formed at said top end portion of said second lens barrel (22, 22A), wherein said first retention portion (120, 120A) and said second retention portion (220, 220A) are connected with each other at a position that said bottom end portion of said first lens barrel (12, 12A) is extended into said second retention portion (220, 220A) for connecting said first lens barrel (12, 12A) and said second lens barrel (22, 22A) with each other so as to form an integrated lens configuration, particularly said bottom side of said first retention portion (120, 120A) is bonded to a top lateral side of said second retention portion (220, 220A) by adhesive.
  10. The split lens, as recited in claim 9, wherein said retention groove (223D) is formed at a top side of said second retention portion (220, 220A) for accommodating at least one connecting element (42, 42A) to bond said second retention portion (220, 220A) with said first retention portion (120, 120A).
  11. The split lens, as recited in one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said light shielding element (32, 32A) is made of black glue.
  12. The split lens, as in one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the lens at the bottom position of said first lens group (10, 10A) is adhered at an inner surface of said first lens barrel (12, 12A) via at least a bonding element (41).
  13. A camera module, comprising: said lens split as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 11, and at least one photosensitive unit (5), wherein an image is formed via a photoelectric conversion when light passes through said split lens to said photosensitive unit (5).
  14. The camera module, as recited in claim 13, is an auto focus camera module or a fixed focus camera module.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION The present invention relates to a split lens, and more particularly to a split lens being incorporated in a camera module of a smart device. DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ARTS The performance of a camera product directly relates to a quality of an optical lens configuration. In other words, making a good quality optical lens is a major factor for manufacturing a high performance of the camera product in the camera industry. In the field of camera photography, optical lens research and development can reflect the pursuit of high quality performance by a manufacturer. With the popularity of smart mobile devices, the design and development of optical lenses have encountered more challenges in the face of smart mobile devices, but also encountered a broader market. Smart mobile devices, especially smartphones, Internet-enabled tablets, laptops, service terminals, and portable identification devices, are products with a wide range of markets. The camera module is directly assembled into the such devices to form an image sensing device. It is worth mentioning that many devices have the requirements that the performance of the camera module is as good as the performance of a professional camera device. Therefore, the requirement and expectation of the camera module is getting higher and higher. Obviously, the most effective way is to improve from the lens of the camera module, wherein the major component that affects the resolution and quality of the camera module is a lens thereof. Accordingly, a conventional camera generally comprises a plurality of optical lenses sequentially stacked with each other and mounted in a lens barrel. When two or more lens barrels are assembled together, a complete optical module is formed via optical transmission relationships between the plurality of lenses in the plurality of lens barrels. However, there are some defects or tolerances during the assembling operation of the optical lenses due to the eccentricity and tilting of the optical lenses and the image sensor, which will result in lower the resolution of the optical module. And because there are tolerances when traditional lenses are processed, there is still tolerance between the lens barrels after each lens is well processed and well assembled in the lens barrels. It is difficult to fix or correct such tolerances after the assembling operation of the optical module is completed. Furthermore, it is a waste of material due to the high failure rate and low production rate of the optical module. In order to design a well-performing optical system, there is still a problem in the production of the design and processing of the lens spacer. Accordingly, the lens spacer affects not only the focal length, intercept and discrimination rate of the optical ability, but also the resolution of the optical module. Furthermore, the structural configuration of the lens spacer is also affected by the difference in the diameter of the front and rear lenses and the size of the aperture. The existing manufacturing process of the optical module requires good design and simulation of the lens spacer and precise processing step of the lens spacer. In other words, the lens spacer must provide a uniform optical spacing, an effective optical aperture, and precise optical axial alignment to guarantee the quality of the optical module. In order to ensure the imaging quality of the optical module, the optical module must provide an excellent light shielding environment thereof to prevent any external light entering into the optical module so as to minimize any external stray light. Furthermore, the increasing number of optical lenses is adapted for the high pixel camera modules. In other words, the overall height of the camera module will be increased by the increasing number of optical lenses. On the other hand, the camera module is designed and developed in a thinner and compact manner. Due to the highly development of the camera module technology, an improvement of each component in the camera module is crucial. For example, the lens spacer is indispensable in the conventional camera module, and will occupies a certain installation space in the camera module. Accordingly, the lens spacer is made of soft material and is sandwiched between two optical lenses. The lens spacer is difficult to mount at the lens barrel in order to fix and retain the position of the lens spacer. It is to the provision of a camera module to enhance the performance of the camera module, to improve the yield and production efficiency of the camera module, and to minimize the production costs of the camera module. US 2012/218649 A1 relates to a small-scale image pickup device which is suitable for use in an image pickup device. KR 2014 0076761 A relates to a lens module capable of precisely adjusting the position of an object-side lens. WO 2011/122357 A1 relates to an imaging optical system that forms an image of a subject on an imaging surface of a solid-state im