Adjustable Image Sensor Holder with Cam Rings for Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
In digital cameras, achieving optimal positional alignment between the lens and image sensor is challenging due to mechanical tolerances, leading to misalignment angles that result in poor image focus, especially with multi-megapixel sensors where small misalignments significantly impact image quality.
Innovation Solution
A digital camera design featuring an adjustable image sensor holder and one or more adjustment rings that interact via cam surfaces and reading heads to adjust the image sensor's angle relative to the optical axis, allowing for precise alignment and maintaining constant back focal distance during adjustment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the image sensor is mounted using conventional mounting methods with mechanical tolerances, then the manufacturing process is simple and fast, but the alignment precision between the image sensor and optical axis deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by making the image sensor holder adjustable rather than fixed. The holder can be tilted and positioned in different orientations to compensate for misalignment between the lens optical axis and the sensor plane. This dynamic adjustment capability allows the system to achieve precise alignment (improving manufacturing precision) while maintaining a relatively simple mounting structure that can adapt to tolerance variations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the orientation parameter of the image sensor holder by introducing tilt angles (alpha and beta) as adjustable parameters. By varying these angular parameters, the system can compensate for misalignment issues without requiring extremely tight mechanical tolerances in the mounting structure, thus resolving the contradiction between alignment precision and structural complexity.
2Manufacturing precision
If the image sensor is tilted to correct misalignment, then the alignment precision improves, but the back focal distance changes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces direct mechanical tilting of the sensor with a mechanical adjustment system consisting of an adjustable holder with cam surfaces and reading heads. This substitution allows for controlled angular adjustment while maintaining a constant back focal distance through the specific geometry of the cam profiles, resolving the contradiction between improving sensor alignment and maintaining fixed back focal distance.
Solution Approach 2:
The adjustable holder provides dynamic control over both the tilt angle and the back focal distance. By coordinating the movement of multiple reading heads on cam surfaces, the system can adjust the sensor orientation while compensating for changes in back focal distance, thereby maintaining both alignment precision and constant back focal distance simultaneously.
3Manufacturing precision
If multiple adjustment rings are used to adjust misalignment in different directions, then the alignment precision in multiple directions improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the alignment adjustment function into two independent adjustment rings: one for adjusting misalignment in the first direction (e.g., horizontal) and another for the second direction (e.g., vertical). Each ring controls a specific degree of freedom, allowing independent adjustment without interfering with the other direction. This segmentation improves multi-directional alignment precision while keeping each individual adjustment mechanism relatively simple.
Solution Approach 2:
Each adjustment ring is designed to perform a specific adjustment function while being part of a unified adjustment system. The rings work together to provide comprehensive multi-directional alignment capability, with each ring being a standardized component that can be manufactured and adjusted independently, thus balancing multi-directional precision with manageable system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a digital camera which comprises a sensor holder on which an image sensor is mounted and at least one adjustment ring. The adjustment ring is configured to rotate around an optical axis (OA) of the camera. The sensor holder and the at least one adjustment ring are configured to interact via at least one cam surface such that when the at least one adjustment ring is rotated with respect to the sensor holder, a normal direction of the sensor is adjusted in relation to a direction of the optical axis.