A Thin Digital Camera: The Next Step in Technology?

Looking back at where cameras started out, it is hard to believe it began with a huge wooden box containing one photographic plate, and a chemically operated “flash”. Today it is commonplace to have cameras the size of a matchbox, or small enough to fit on a key chain. Today you have the ability to take hundreds of pictures, and even video shots. Who would ever have believed it a hundred years ago…..

After all the leaps and bounds, technology has taken us one step further: The thin digital camera. Thanks to a technology known as WLC (wafer level camera) technology, it is possible to create miniature cameras that can be fitted into cell phones, computers, and security devices. Remarkably enough, WLC did not only reduce the size of the camera, but also the cost of manufacturing. Using OptiML WLC technology, a large amount of lenses are manufactured on a wafer, bonded on the wafer level to create the optical element of the camera. This construction approach has allowed size reductions of up to fifty percent, compared to the camera module used previously for mobile phones.

The lenses are built from materials that are reflow compatible. Thanks to this technique, the camera modules can be mounted straight onto the phone board, using the same reflow assembly process as other electronic components. cutting the cost of labor, and increasing production efficiency.

The technology applied in the manufacture of a thin digital camera, can be adapted to suit a wide range of (camera) applications. Thousands of lenses are built simultaneously on the same wafer, and then aligned and bonded. The bonded modules are divided into individual lens modules, each of which are mounted on a packaged image sensor. This allows for creating multi-mega pixel cameras, depending on the application.

WLC technology is cheaper, more efficient, and results in a much smaller camera unit than what was ever available before. It is even capable of advanced auto-focus and  digital optical zoom without the need for any moving parts. The thin digital camera has  finally arrived to take us into the future.  Now try and explain THAT to your grandfather….