Abstract: A voice coil motor with a lateral attraction force comprising a magnetic device, a lens carrier, a base, a plurality of guide posts, a set of surface coil and a guiding magnetic plate. The first contact structure and the second contact structure of the magnetic device are contacted the plurality of guide posts respectively. There is at least one contacting point between the first contact structure and one of the plurality of guide posts, and there are at least two contacting point between the second contact structure and the other of the plurality of guide posts.

Abstract: A voice coil motor (VCM) includes a lens carrier physically connected to a magnetic device, an electromagnetic driving apparatus, constructed by a coil, a magnetic sensing element, a storage media and a controller. The magnetic sensing element detects a location of the lens carrier and outputs the location value relating to the location of the lens carrier via an amplifier. The storage media stores a gain value and an offset compensation value relating to the amplifier. The controller can make the lens carrier move between a top position and a bottom position in which the lens carrier can be moved within the voice coil motor. The lens carrier is moved using the coil interaction with a magnetic field of the magnetic device when current is applied to the coil.

Abstract: A voice coil motor with a surface coil includes a set of magnetic sensing elements, a lens carrier physically connected to the set of magnetic sensing elements, a pedestal, and a set of printed circuit boards fixed onto the pedestal. A patterned metal layer is fabricated on the set of printed circuit boards to form the surface coil, a Hall sensor is installed on one of the printed circuit boards and transmits signals (e.g., operation voltages and feedback sensing signals) via traces fabricated on the set of printed circuit boards, so as to achieve simultaneous fabrication of the surface coil and traces, thereby saving space which is conventionally occupied by copper coils. The Hall sensor can sense a variation in a magnetic field resulting from the motion of the set of magnetic sensing elements to determine a motion status of the lens carrier.

Abstract: A low power voice coil motor (VCM) with a guiding magnet shell comprises a magnetic device, a lens carrier, a base, a plurality of guide posts, an electromagnetic driving apparatus and a shell enclosing the lens carrier, the magnetic device and the electromagnetic driving apparatus. The shell and the magnetic device are arranged with a distance within a predetermined range and the attractive force between the magnetic device and the shell in lateral direction induces a shift of the lens carrier for added the friction force between the plurality of guide posts and walls of a plurality of holes. The added friction force is larger than a gravitational force from a total weight of the magnetic device, the lens carrier and a lens set held by the lens carrier, and/or an upward attractive force of the shell on the magnetic device, so the lens set can be fixed at a position even if power is turned off.

Abstract: A voice coil motor apparatus applied to an auto-focus or variable-focus lens module of a miniaturized camera includes: a voice coil motor, a plurality of steel guidance shafts, a lens holder, and a base. The voice coil motor also includes a magnetic part including magnets and yokes, and an electrical part including a coil winding. The magnetic part is rigidly coupled to the lens holder to form the moving member. The electrical part and the steel guidance shafts are fixed on the base to form the non-moving member. The pre-loaded force due to the interaction between the leakage flux of the magnetic part and the steel guidance shafts eliminates the free-play resulting from the tolerance gap between the moving and the non-moving members, and that the magnets and the yokes form a non-circular magnetic structure having a rectangular contour in order to minimize the overall dimension.