New Electromagnetic Design of Miniature AF VCM Actuator with Low Cost

Recently, compact and high-resolution camera modules with auto-focusing (AF) function have been integrated into cell phones in order to capture sharp photographs. Consumer demands AF camera modules in cell phones to have high performance with low cost. Accordingly, the present study proposes a new electromagnetic design of miniature AF voice coil motor (VCM) actuator with closed-loop control for cell phone camera modules to satisfy the requirements. The structure of the proposed AF VCM actuators was designed by using simulation methods. The performance of the proposed AF VCM actuators was demonstrated by a laboratory-built prototype. The experimental results have shown that the proposed AF VCM actuator has excellent performance with lower power consumption, higher positioning repeatability, and lower cost, when compared to previous AF VCM actuators with open-loop control or closed-loop control.