Minolta Company, Ltd.

Konica Minolta Opto, Inc.

Konica-minolta Holdings, Inc.

Konica Minolta Photo Imaging, Inc.

Akira Kosaka

Yoshihiro Hara

Junichi Tanii

Yasutaka Tanimura

Natsuki Yamamoto

Shigeru Wada

Satoshi Yokota

Masataka Hamada

Takashi Matsuo

Yoshiharu Tanaka

Yoshito Iwasawa

Shoichi Minato

Tomoo Izumi

Tetsuro Kanbara

Kazuaki Matsui

Mitsuhiro Fukuda

Sadanobu Ueda

Minoru Kuwana

Yoshie Shimizu

Yasuhiro Okamoto

Toshiyuki Tanaka

Junji Sato

Hiroyuki Okada

Shinya Matsuda

Masayuki Ueyama

Ryuichi Yoshida

Kazuhiro Shibatani

Kenji Mizumoto

Satoshi Hamada

Satoshi Shinke

Atsuhiro Noda

Natsuko Shiota

Kouji Hamaguchi

Satoshi Masuda

Mototaka Chikami

An image sensor unit includes a fixed substrate, a movable substrate, an actuate section including an actuator for moving the movable substrate against the fixed substrate, an image sensor having an imaging surface on a front surface of the image sensor, and at least, a part of a rear surface of the image sensor being directly fixed onto the movable substrate, an external electrical connecting member for conducting a transmission and reception of signals between the actuate section and the image sensor and an outside of the image sensor unit, and an internal electrical connecting member electrically connects the actuate section, the image sensor and the external connection wiring, wherein the actuate section, the image sensor, the internal connection wiring and a part of the external connection wiring are sealed into the same space.

Image sensor unit and image sensor apparatus

A technique capable of satisfying both higher functionality and higher accuracy in a compact imaging device is sought to be provided. In order to accomplish the above object, an imaging device is formed by lamination of a plurality of layers including: an imaging element layer that has an imaging element part; a lens layer that has a lens part whose distance from the imaging element part is changeable, and is disposed between a subject and the imaging element part; and an actuator layer that has an actuator part to move the lens part, and is disposed between the subject and the imaging element part.

Imaging device and imaging device manufacturing method

A technique of enabling both of higher functionality and higher accuracy in a compact optical system is provided. To achieve this object, an imaging unit has a laminated structure formed by laminating a plurality of layers including: an image capturing element layer including an image capturing element part; a lens layer capable of changing a distance from the image capturing element layer; and an actuator layer including a movable part for moving the lens layer; and a signal transmitter disposed so as to connect the actuator layer and the image capturing element layer, and transmitting a drive signal for driving the movable part from the image capturing element layer side to the actuator layer, and the movable part is deformed according to the drive signal transmitted through the signal transmitter, and the actuator layer is provided between the image capturing element layer and the lens layer.

Imaging unit and imaging device

An object of the present invention is to provide an actuator allowing a control of displacement and configured to offer a high degree of freedom in designing, and a drive device and an imaging device including the actuator. To achieve the object, an actuator is adopted including a movable part deformable in accordance with heat generation and a control section controlling the amount of deformation of the movable part. In the actuator, the movable part is structured with a plurality of portions including a base portion, a force generating portion, and a heat generating portion being stacked, the force generating portion generating force in accordance with heating, the heat generating portion generating heat in accordance with a current supply. The control section controls the amount of deformation of the movable part by controlling the current supply to the heat generating portion based on an electrical resistance in the heat generating portion.

Actuator, drive device, and imaging device

Imaging device formed by lamination of a plurality of layers

A biasing spring is interposed between a coupling plate and a covering section while being compressed from its natural length. The biasing spring biases, by its resilient force, a lens unit toward a &#x2212;Z side to bring a surface of the lens unit at the &#x2212;Z side into contact with an abutment portion of a fixing frame section. When a temperature of an actuator is equal to or lower than a predetermined temperature, a biasing force of the biasing spring surpasses a force generated in the actuator, and thus the lens unit is not moved. When the actuator is heated up to a temperature equal to or higher than the predetermined temperature, the lens unit is continuously moved in the +Z direction. Thereby, movement of a lens due to a change of an environmental temperature can be prevented.

Lens driving device and camera unit

An image capturing device, including an rectangular image capturing element having long sides and short sides; an image capturing optical system forming an image of a subject on the rectangular image capturing element; a first driving device which moves the rectangular image capturing element in a first direction slanted by a predetermined angle from the long side and the short side of an outer shape of the rectangular image capturing element in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis of the image capturing optical system; and a second driving device which moves the rectangular image capturing element in a second direction slanted by a predetermine angle from the long side and the short side of the outer shape of the rectangular image capturing element in the plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the image capturing optical system, but the second direction differs from the first direction.

Image capturing device

An object of the present invention is to provide a small-sized image sensor device having high precision of moving an object to be moved. The image sensor device includes: a fixed unit; a movable unit including an image sensor; a beam unit fixed to the fixed unit and movably supporting the movable unit; a driving unit for applying a driving force for moving the movable unit; and a wire unit provided for the beam unit and electrically connecting the image sensor and an external circuit.

Image sensor device with movable sensor

An optical unit is provided which is characterized by compact configuration, high performance and minimized noise, and which has a drive element to drive a lens cone holding an image pickup optical system, and has the same outside diameter as the lens cone, wherein the optical unit drives the image pickup optical system by expanding and contracting the drive element in a direction of an optical axis of the image pickup optical system. An image pickup apparatus is provided which is characterized by compact configuration, high performance and minimized noise, and which has an optical unit coupled to an image pickup unit through a drive element, and has the same outside diameter as the optical unit, wherein the apparatus drives the optical unit by expanding and contracting the drive unit in a direction of an optical axis of the optical unit.

Optical unit and image pickup apparatus utilizing electrostrictive drive elements

An object of the preset invention is to provide a technique capable of preventing occurrence of an assembly error. A driving apparatus for driving an object includes: a driving part having a stationary part and a moving part; and a displacement transmitting part for transmitting a displacement to the object in accordance with a drive displacement of the moving part. The displacement transmitting part and the moving part coupled to the displacement transmitting part are integrally molded.

Driving apparatus, image capturing unit, and image capturing apparatus

An art of a driving device for appropriately improving a response of an SMA actuator will be provided. A portable telephonehas an image stabilization systemfor driving an image pickup unitby a pair of driving membersandfunctioning as actuators, thereby performing image stabilization. Driving membersandare formed as a wire of shape memory alloy (SMA) and when a voltage is applied to both ends and a current is supplied, driving force is generated in the contraction direction. With respect to the wire diameter of the SMAs, the wire diameter of the SMAs is set between 10 &#x3bc;m and 80 &#x3bc;m, thus the mountability and response are improved appropriately.

Driving device and image stabilizing system

Driving techniques are provided for achieving a sufficiently low-speed drive and smooth change in the drive speed. Voltage is applied to an electromechanical element by repeating an output cycle in which one voltage value out of a first voltage value is output during a first period, a second voltage value lower than the first voltage value is output during a second period, a third voltage value lower than the second voltage value is output during a third period, and finally the second voltage value is output during a fourth period. Further, a mechanism for changing the lengths of the respective periods is provided to allow for a sufficiently low-speed drive and smooth change in the drive speed.

Drive device and drive system

An arrangement of the invention includes a base block, a cylindrical cam, as a rotary member, which is rotatably supported on the base block, and includes a contact portion on an outer periphery thereof for outputting a rotating force, a drive gear, as an oscillatory ring, which includes a contact portion on an inner periphery thereof, and is oscillated on a plane perpendicular to a rotation axis of the cylindrical camin contact with the contact portion of the cylindrical cam, parallel springsthrough, as a position retainer, for retaining the position of the drive gear, and three or more shape metal alloy actuators (SMA) wiresthrough, as expandable and contractible actuators, with both ends of the each SMA wire being fixed to the base blockfor contact with the drive gear

Motor, motor device, and lens drive mechanism using the same

An image capturing device, including an rectangular image capturing element having long sides and short sides; an image capturing optical system forming an image of a subject on the rectangular image capturing element; a first driving device which moves the rectangular image capturing element in a first direction slanted by a predetermined angle from the long side and the short side of an outer shape of the rectangular image capturing element in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis of the image capturing optical system; and a second driving device which moves the rectangular image capturing element in a second direction slanted by a predetermined angle from the long side and the short side of the outer shape of the rectangular image capturing element in the plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the image capturing optical system, but the second direction differs from the first direction.

Growing community of inventors

Yao, Japan

Akira Kosaka