Camera Module Back Surface Substrate Mounting for Size Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current camera modules face challenges such as increased size and protrusion due to the arrangement of passive components, photosensitive elements, and bearings, which affects the appearance and durability of portable electronic devices, especially with the trend towards thinner and lighter designs.
Innovation Solution
The camera module design involves attaching the photosensitive element to the substrate's back surface, allowing the photosensitive area to correspond with a substrate channel, which reduces the height size of the camera module while maintaining or enhancing focal length and zoom range. Additionally, the substrate's front surface is used only for attaching the bearing, and electronic components are connected to the substrate on both surfaces, optimizing layout and reducing size.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If passive components, photosensitive element and bearing are attached to the same side of the circuit board, then the camera module can be assembled, but the size in horizontal and height directions cannot be reduced due to required safety distances
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dimensionality change by moving the photosensitive element from the front surface to the back surface of the substrate, utilizing the third dimension (depth/thickness) to resolve the spatial conflict. This allows passive components to be arranged on the front surface while the photosensitive element occupies the back surface, eliminating the need for lateral safety distances and reducing the overall camera module size.
2Volume of moving object
If photosensitive element is attached to the circuit board with wire bonding process, then electrical connection is achieved, but safety distance must be reserved between passive component and gold wire, further increasing length and width sizes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the wire bonding process from the assembly methodology by directly mounting the photosensitive element onto the substrate back surface with electrical connection structures integrated into the substrate. This eliminates the need for separate gold wires and the associated safety distances, reducing the camera module's length and width while maintaining electrical connection reliability through direct substrate integration.
3Ease of manufacture
If passive components and photosensitive element are located in the same space, then assembly is simplified, but shedding from passive component oxidation or connecting positions adheres to photosensitive area, causing stain spots
Solution Approach 1:
The patent resolves the contamination issue by separating passive components and the photosensitive element into different spatial dimensions - passive components on the front surface and the photosensitive element on the back surface of the substrate. This vertical separation prevents shedding from passive components from reaching the photosensitive area while maintaining assembly efficiency through the integrated substrate structure.
4Ease of manufacture
If bearing is attached to circuit board with fluid state binder, then attachment is achieved, but binder may flow to photosensitive area, causing contamination
Solution Approach 1:
The patent eliminates the risk of binder contamination by attaching the photosensitive element to the back surface of the substrate, positioned away from the front surface where passive components and binders are applied. This spatial separation ensures that fluid state binders cannot flow onto the photosensitive area while maintaining ease of manufacture through standard attachment processes.
5Ease of manufacture
If photosensitive element is attached to the surface of the substrate, then assembly is straightforward, but distance between photosensitive element and optical lens is limited, reducing focal length and zoom range
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables greater design flexibility for focal length and zoom range by attaching the photosensitive element to the back surface of the substrate. This positioning removes the constraint of limited distance adjustment that exists when the photosensitive element is mounted on the front surface, allowing optimization of the optical path length and lens-to-sensor distance for enhanced focal length and zoom capabilities while maintaining assembly simplicity.
Data Source
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AI summary
A camera module and a molded circuit board assembly thereof, a semi-finished product of the molded circuit board assembly, and an array camera module and a molded circuit board assembly thereof, as well as a manufacturing method and an electronic device, wherein the camera module comprises at least one optical lens, at least one back surface molded portion, at least one photosensitive element and a circuit board. The circuit board comprises at least one substrate and at least one electronic component that is conductively connected to the substrate; a part of the non-photosensitive area of the photosensitive element is attached to the substrate back surface of the substrate, and the photosensitive area and another part of the non-photosensitive area of the photosensitive element correspond to a substrate channel of the substrate; the back surface molded portion is integrally bonded to at least one part of the area of the substrate back surface of the substrate; and the optical lens is held in the photosensitive path of the photosensitive element.