Camera Housing Assembly for Clean Sensor-Objective Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for manufacturing automotive cameras struggle with achieving high cleanliness and precision in optical alignment, particularly for augmented reality applications, leading to misalignments and increased process costs and times.
Innovation Solution
The method involves mounting the camera objective on a carrier with a contamination-proof space, aligning it with the camera sensor, and then integrating the assembly into a camera housing, reducing the surface area requiring high cleanliness and allowing precise alignment within +/-1 degree for pitch, yaw, and roll angles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the complete value stream of all involved components is maintained at high cleanliness levels, then the cleanliness and precision of the optical setup is improved, but process costs and process time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The invention divides the camera system into two separate assembly stages: first assembling the camera objective with the carrier in a contamination-proof space, then mounting this pre-assembled unit onto the camera housing with the printed circuit board. This segmentation allows the critical optical alignment to be performed in a controlled environment while reducing the overall cleanliness requirements for the complete assembly process.
Solution Approach 2:
The camera objective is pre-aligned with the carrier in advance within the contamination-proof space before the final assembly with the camera housing. This preliminary action ensures high alignment accuracy is achieved during the critical optical setup phase, while subsequent assembly steps can proceed with lower cleanliness requirements, thereby reducing total process time and cost.
2Reliability
If high cleanliness levels are maintained for all components, then optical performance is improved, but process risks and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies high cleanliness requirements locally only to the contamination-proof space where the camera objective and carrier are assembled, rather than requiring all components and assembly areas to maintain uniform high cleanliness levels. This localized approach reduces overall process complexity and cost while ensuring optical performance is not compromised.
3Manufacturing precision
If additional process steps are added during assembly, then alignment precision is improved, but process time is extended
Solution Approach 1:
The critical alignment between camera objective and carrier is performed as a preliminary action within the contamination-proof space before final assembly. This approach achieves high alignment precision in one integrated step rather than requiring multiple separate adjustment steps after assembly, thereby reducing total process time while maintaining accuracy.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a camera comprising an objective carrier assembly having a carrier on which at least one camera sensor and a camera objective are mounted, and a camera housing configured to at least partially enclose the objective carrier assembly, the camera housing comprising a first housing part over which the objective carrier assembly is mounted and a second housing part which is mounted on the first housing part. The invention furthermore relates to a method of manufacturing a camera.