Thin dual-aperture zoom digital camera

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9413972-B2
Application number	US-201414373500-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 4, 2014
Priority date	Jul 4, 2013
Publication date	Aug 9, 2016
Grant date	Aug 9, 2016

Abstract

A dual-aperture zoom camera comprising a Wide camera with a respective Wide lens and a Tele camera with a respective Tele lens, the Wide and Tele cameras mounted directly on a single printed circuit board, wherein the Wide and Tele lenses have respective effective focal lengths EFL W and EFL T and respective total track lengths TTL W and TTL T and wherein TTL W /EFL W >1.1 and TTL T /EFL T <1.0. Optionally, the dual-aperture zoom camera may further comprise an optical OIS controller configured to provide a compensation lens movement according to a user-defined zoom factor (ZF) and a camera tilt (CT) through LMV=CT*EFL ZF , where EFL ZF is a zoom-factor dependent effective focal length.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A dual-aperture zoom camera, comprising:
a) a Wide camera with a respective Wide lens and a Tele camera with a respective Tele lens, the Wide and Tele cameras mounted directly on a single printed circuit board, wherein the Wide and Tele lenses have respective effective focal lengths EFL W and EFL T and respective total track lengths TTL W and TTL T , wherein TTL W /EFL W >1.1 and TTL T /EFL T <1.0, wherein EFL T /EFL W =e, and wherein e is in the range 1.3-2.0; and
b) an optical image stabilization (OIS) mechanism configured to provide a compensation lens movement (LMV) according to a camera tilt (CT) input and a user-defined zoom factor (ZF) through LMV=CT×EFL ZF , wherein CT is a camera tilt in radians and EFL ZF is a zoom-factor dependent effective focal length in millimeters.

2. The dual-aperture zoom camera of claim 1 , wherein for ZF=1, EFL ZF =EFL W .

3. The dual-aperture zoom camera of claim 1 , wherein for ZF=e, EFL ZF =EFL T .

4. The dual-aperture zoom camera of claim 1 , wherein for a ZF in the range 1<ZF<e, EFL ZF =ZF×EFL W .

5. The dual-aperture zoom camera of claim 1 , wherein for a ZF in the range ZF>e, EFL ZF =EFL T .

6. The dual-aperture zoom camera of claim 1 , wherein a ratio TTL T /TTL W is in the range 1.0-1.25.

7. The dual-aperture zoom camera of claim 1 , wherein a ratio TTL T /TTL W is smaller that 0.8×(EFL T /EFL W ).

8. The dual-aperture zoom camera of claim 1 , having a dual-aperture zoom camera height of less than 7 mm.

9. A dual-aperture zoom camera, comprising:
a) a Wide camera with a respective Wide lens and a Tele camera with a respective Tele lens, the Wide and Tele cameras mounted directly on a single printed circuit board, wherein the Wide and Tele lenses have respective effective focal lengths EFL W and EFL T and respective total track lengths TTL W and TTL T and wherein TTL W /EFL W >1.1 and TTL T /EFL T <1.0,
wherein the Tele lens comprises a first lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface, a second lens element with negative refractive power having a thickness d 2 on an optical axis and separated from the first lens element by a first air gap, a third lens element with negative refractive power and separated from the second lens element by a second air gap, a fourth lens element having a positive refractive power and separated from the third lens element by a third air gap, and a fifth lens element having a negative refractive power, separated from the fourth lens element by a fourth air gap, the fifth lens element having a thickness d 5 on the optical axis; and
b) a single magnetic shield plate positioned between the Wide and Tele cameras, wherein the single magnetic shield plate has a plate length and a plate height no larger than a respective length and height of either of the Wide or Tele cameras,
wherein a focal length of the first lens element f1 is smaller than TTL T /2, the first, third and fifth lens elements have each an Abbe number greater than 50, the second and fourth lens elements have each an Abbe number smaller than 30, the first air gap is smaller than d 2 /2, the third air gap is greater than TTL T /5 and the fourth air gap is smaller than 1.5d 5 .

10. A method for manufacturing a dual-aperture zoom camera comprising the steps of:
a) providing a Wide camera having a Wide lens with an effective focal length (EFL) EFL W and a total track length (TTL) TTL W ;
b) providing a Tele camera having a Tele lens with an effective focal length EFL T and a total track length TTL T , wherein TTL W /EFL W >1.1 and TTL T /EFL T <1.0, wherein EFL T /EFL W =e and wherein e is in the range 1.3-2.0;
c) mounting the Wide and Tele cameras directly on a single printed circuit board; and
d) configuring an optical image stabilization (OIS) controller of the dual-aperture zoom camera to compensate lens movement (LMV) of the Wide and Tele lenses according to a camera tilt (CT) input in radians and a user-defined zoom factor (ZF), wherein LMV=CT×EFL ZF and wherein EFL ZF is a zoom-factor dependent effective focal length in millimeters.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein for ZF=1, EFL ZF =EFL W .

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein for ZF=e, EFL ZF =EFL T .

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein for a ZF in the range 1<ZF<e, EFL ZF =ZF×EFL W .

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein for a ZF in the range ZF>e, EFL ZF =EFL T .

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein a ratio TTL T /TTL W is in the range 1.0-1.25.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein a ratio TTL T /TTL W is smaller than 0.8×(EFL T /EFL W ).

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein the step of providing the Tele camera having the Tele lens with the effective focal length EFL T and the total track length TTL T includes providing a Tele lens comprising a first lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface, a second lens element with negative refractive power having a thickness d 2 on an optical axis and separated from the first lens element by a first air gap, a third lens element with negative refractive power and separated from the second lens element by a second air gap, a fourth lens element having a positive refractive power and separated from the third lens element by a third air gap, and a fifth lens element having a negative refractive power, separated from the fourth lens element by a fourth air gap, the fifth lens element having a thickness d 5 on the optical axis.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the focal length of the first lens element f1 is smaller than TTL T /2, the first, third and fifth lens elements have each an Abbe number greater than 50, the second and fourth lens elements have each an Abbe number smaller than 30, the first air gap is smaller than d 2 /2, the third air gap is greater than TTL T /5 and the fourth air gap is smaller than 1.5d 5 .

Assignees

• Corephotonics Ltd

Inventors

• Shabtay Gal
• Goldenberg Ephraim

Classifications

• H04N23/69

  Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming · CPC title

• H04N23/45

  for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images · CPC title

• H04N23/16

  Optical arrangements associated therewith, e.g. for beam-splitting or for colour correction · CPC title

• H04N23/57

  Mechanical or electrical details of cameras or camera modules specially adapted for being embedded in other devices · CPC title

• G02B13/18

  with lenses having one or more non-spherical faces, e.g. for reducing geometrical aberration {(G02B13/002 takes precedence)} · CPC title