Presented at Actuator 2008, Bremen, Germany, June 2008
By David Henderson, Qin Xu and Danielle Piazza
New Scale Technologies

In 2008, approximately 1.2 billion mobile phone handsets will be manufactured. Of these, more than 200 million will include cameras with a micro actuator for automatic focus (AF). More than 10 million will also incorporate optical zoom (OZ) combined with AF. To keep pace with shrinking camera dimensions and increasing mega pixels, the motors must become smaller and yet still achieve micrometer precision.

In 2003 New Scale developed the SQUIGGLE® motor, which meets the longer stroke requirements for AF and OZ cameras. This motor is 50 percent smaller than comparable piezo motors while achieving 10 times higher force and resolution.

In 2007-2008 New Scale developed a new patent-pending ultrasonic piezo motor that meets the challenges of Ultra-Thin Auto Focus (UTAF) cameras. The UTAF motor saves space and height by combining the motor with the linear guide mechanism and enables overall camera thickness less than 5 mm.

This paper describes the use of the SQUIGGLE motor in AFOZ modules, and presents the company’s newer UTAF motor for ultra-thin autofocus cameras.

Download the technical paper