Magna Electronics Inc.

Delphi Technologies, Inc.

Steven V Byrne

Yuesheng Lu

Matthew C Sesti

Jonathan David Conger

Robert A Devota

Joel S Gibson

Rene Dreiocker

Richard Rieden

Jamie A Mleczko

Brian J Winden

John R Garcia

David F Olson

Brian Dean Brasier

Joseph A Stemmer

Ben Stickler

Richard D Shriner

Nazar F Bally

Clarence Patrick McElroy

Paul A VanOphem

Sebastian Pliefke

Thomas Wierich

Zhongyao Liu

James Daniel Harris

Paul Jarmola

Michael J Higgins-Luthman

Achim Newiger

Christian Mai

Stefan Sauer

Loren Mitchell Thompson

Jose Luis Zamudio Cabral

Rainer Strey

Randall J Heidtman

Martin J Reckker

Jazmin Hortensia Gallardo Gabaldon

Marc Rother

Justin E Sobecki

Garret F Achenbach

William R Livengood

Austen C Peterson

Jeffrey A White

Ronald D Wilcox

Clarence P Mcelroy

Gregory A Janik

Lynn A Adams

Kevin T Smith

Janie R Harari

Andreas Weis

Brian D Braiser

James R Hough

A vehicular camera module includes a camera housing having a front housing portion and a rear housing portion, a lens barrel accommodating a lens, and an imager printed circuit board (PCB). The lens barrel is attached at the front housing portion and extends through an aperture of the front housing portion. With an imager aligned with the lens, the imager PCB is adhesively attached at an inner end of the lens barrel. With the lens barrel and a connector PCB attached at the front housing portion, the connector PCB is spaced from the imager printed circuit board. Circuitry of the imager PCB is electrically connected to circuitry of the connector PCB via a flexible electrical connector. The rear housing portion includes a receiving portion configured to receive the electrical connector when the front housing portion is attached at the rear housing portion during assembly of the vehicular camera module.

Vehicular camera module

A vehicular camera includes a camera housing having a first housing portion and a second housing portion joined together to form a cavity within the camera housing. A first electrical connector is disposed at a circuit board and includes a plurality of pin-receiving sockets. The second housing portion has a second electrical connector having a plurality of pins. With the first housing portion joined with the second housing portion, the first ends of the pins are disposed within the cavity and the second ends of the pins are disposed outside of the cavity. When the second housing portion is being joined with the first housing portion, respective first ends of the pins insert into and electrically-conductively connect with respective pin-receiving sockets at the circuit board. With the vehicular camera mounted at a vehicle, the second ends of the pins electrically-conductively connect with a vehicle wire harness of the vehicle.

Vehicular camera

A vehicular camera includes a lens barrel accommodating a lens, a housing, and an imager printed circuit board. During assembly of the camera, with the lens barrel received through an alignment element and a first portion of the housing, the lens barrel is adjusted relative to the first portion of the housing and alignment element to initially align the lens relative to the imager. With the lens initially aligned relative to the imager, the alignment element is initially attached to the first portion of the housing and the lens barrel is initially attached to the alignment element to initially retain the lens relative to the imager. With the lens initially retained relative to the imager, the lens barrel is adjusted to further align the lens relative to the imager and the alignment member is secured at the housing and the lens barrel is secured at the alignment member.

Vehicular camera assembly with lens barrel welded at imager housing

A vehicular camera includes a camera housing having a front housing portion and a rear housing portion. The front housing portion includes a plurality of optical elements, a CMOS imager, and an imager printed circuit board. The CMOS imager is at a first side of the imager printed circuit board. The plurality of optical elements is held in position relative to the CMOS imager by an adhesive, whereby the imaging array at the outer side of the CMOS imager is devoid of the adhesive. The adhesive is formed by curing an adhesive material that is curable via exposure of the adhesive material to ultraviolet (UV) light. The adhesive maintains the position of the plurality of optical elements with respect to the CMOS imager during use of the vehicular camera assembly on a vehicle equipped with the vehicular camera assembly. The back housing portion is joined at the front housing portion.

Vehicular camera and lens assembly

A vehicular camera includes a PCB having an imager disposed thereat, a lens barrel accommodating a lens, and a lens barrel support structure that protrudes from the PCB and at least partially circumscribes the imager. The lens barrel has an outer surface between the ends of the lens barrel. The outer surface of the lens barrel is adhesively bonded to an inner surface of the lens barrel support structure via adhesive. The outer surface of the lens barrel opposes the inner surface of the lens barrel support structure. With the adhesive in its uncured state and contacting the opposed surfaces, the imager is aligned with the lens accommodated at the lens barrel. With the imager aligned with the lens, the adhesive is cured to adhesively attach the lens barrel at the lens barrel support structure.

Vehicular camera with adhesive disposed between non-axially opposed surfaces of the lens barrel and PCB structure

A vehicular camera includes a lens comprising a plurality of optical elements, a lens holder, and an imager printed circuit board. The plurality of optical elements includes at least one plastic optical element and at least one glass optical element. The imager printed circuit board has circuitry disposed thereat. The circuitry of the imager printed circuit board includes an imager that has an imaging array. The lens is held in optical alignment with the imaging array of the imager via an adhesive. The adhesive bonds the lens barrel to the lens holder. A flexible electrical ribbon cable electrically connects the circuitry of the imager printed circuit board with additional circuitry of the vehicular camera. The vehicular camera, when installed and used in a vehicle, captures image data for a vision system of the vehicle.

Vehicular camera with adhesively bonded construction

A vehicular driver monitoring system includes a camera disposed at an interior rearview mirror assembly of a vehicle, an electronic control unit (ECU) with an image processor for processing image data captured by the camera. The camera is disposed at a mirror head of the interior rearview mirror assembly and moves in tandem with the mirror head when the mirror head is adjusted relative to a mounting portion of the interior rearview mirror assembly. The camera includes an imaging array sensor and a lens. The vehicular driver monitoring system, responsive to processing at the ECU of image data captured by the camera, monitors a body portion of a driver of the vehicle. The vehicular driver monitoring system adjusts viewing of the body portion of the driver by the camera to accommodate a change in a scene viewed by the camera.

Vehicular driver monitoring system with camera view optimization

A vehicular camera module includes a front housing member, an imaging array sensor, a lens, a rear housing member, and a circuit board. The rear housing member is mated with the front housing member to form a camera housing. With the circuit board accommodated within the camera housing formed by the mated front and rear housing members, the imaging sensor is closer to a first side of the circuit board than to a second side of the circuit board. The rear housing member includes an electrical plug connector having a plurality of individual electrically-conductive pins that are configured to plug into respective individual pin-receiving sockets of an electrical socket connector disposed at the second side of the circuit board. Individual electrically-conductive pins of the plurality of individual electrically-conductive pins plug into and make electrical-conductive contact with corresponding individual pin-receiving sockets of the plurality of individual pin-receiving sockets.

A vehicular camera includes an imager, a housing having front and rear housing members, a lens member, and a circuit board. A female electrical connector assembly is disposed at the circuit board and includes a set of female electrical connectors. The rear housing member includes a male electrical connector having a set of electrically conductive pins. Each electrically conductive pin includes an inward-extending pin portion and an outward-extending pin portion. The outward-extending pin portions pass outward through a wall portion of the rear housing member into a socket connection portion of the rear housing member and the inward-extending pin portions extend inward from an inner surface of the wall portion of the rear housing member and plug into and electrically connect with respective female electrical connectors of the set of female electrical connectors when the rear housing member is mated with the front housing member.

Vehicular camera with electrical connector

A vehicular driver monitoring system includes a camera disposed at a mirror head of an interior rearview mirror of a vehicle and viewing at least the head of a driver of the vehicle. The camera moves together and in tandem with the mirror head when the mirror head is adjusted by the driver of the vehicle to adjust a rearward view of the driver. Responsive to the driver of the vehicle adjusting the orientation of the mirror head, and responsive to processing at the ECU of image data captured by the camera, the vehicular driver monitoring system maintains the camera's view of at least the head of the driver as it was before the driver adjusted the orientation of the mirror head. The vehicular driver monitoring system, at least in part via processing at the ECU of image data captured by the camera, monitors the driver of the vehicle.

A vehicular interior rearview mirror assembly includes a mirror head adjustably attached at a mounting base. The mirror head includes a prismatic mirror reflective element having a wedge-shaped, reflector-coated glass substrate having a front side and a rear side separated by a thickness of the glass substrate, with the thickness of the glass substrate varying between a lower edge region of the glass substrate and an upper edge region of the glass substrate. A driver monitoring camera is accommodated by the mirror head and views through the prismatic mirror reflective element. A refraction-compensating element is disposed between a lens of the driver monitoring camera and the rear side of the glass substrate of the prismatic mirror reflective element. The refraction-compensating element is a wedge-shaped element that offsets refraction of light that passes through the wedge-shaped, reflector coated glass substrate of the prismatic mirror reflective element.

Vehicular prismatic interior rearview mirror assembly with driver monitoring camera

A vehicular camera includes a camera housing having a rear camera housing and a front camera housing. The front camera housing includes a lens, an imager and an imager printed circuit board. The lens is held in position relative to the imager by a UV-curable adhesive. With the lens held in position relative to the imager by the adhesive, the outer surface of the imager is devoid of the adhesive and an air gap exists between the lens and the outer surface of the imager. With the adhesive disposed in an uncured state on the imager printed circuit board and laterally outboard of the imager, and with the lens positioned relative to the imager, the adhesive is cured from its uncured state to an at least partially-cured state by exposure to UV light. The rear housing portion is joined at the front housing portion.

A vehicular exterior camera includes a housing having a first portion and a second portion. An imager printed circuit board (imager PCB) includes a first side and a second side opposite the first side and separated from the first side by a thickness of the imager PCB, with an imager disposed at the first side of the imager PCB. A lens barrel accommodates a lens and has an inner end. The first housing portion includes a passageway for receiving the lens barrel. The lens barrel is received through the passageway of the first housing portion. The inner end of the lens barrel is adhesively bonded to the first side of the imager PCB via an adhesive. The adhesive circumscribes the imager at the first side of the imager PCB to enclose an area between the imager PCB and the lens. The imager is disposed within the enclosed area.

Vehicular exterior camera with lens attached to imager circuit board

A vehicular occupant monitoring system includes a camera disposed at an interior rearview mirror of a vehicle. The camera includes an imaging array sensor and a lens. The lens is disposed at the imaging array sensor with a center axis of the lens vertically offset from a center region of the imaging array sensor. A center region of the lens is disposed at and images at a lower region of the imaging array sensor when the camera is disposed at the interior rearview mirror and an upper peripheral region of the lens images at the center region and a lower region of the imaging array sensor when the camera is disposed at the interior rearview mirror. The vehicular occupant monitoring system, responsive to processing by the image processor of image data captured by the camera, determines presence of an occupant of the vehicle.

A vehicular driver monitoring system includes a camera disposed at an interior rearview mirror assembly of a vehicle equipped with the vehicular driver monitoring system, an electronic control unit (ECU) with an image processor for processing image data captured by the camera. The camera includes an imaging array sensor and a lens and the camera is adjustable by at least one of (i) adjusting a position of the imaging array sensor relative to the lens and (ii) adjusting a position of the lens relative to the imaging array sensor. The system, responsive to processing at the ECU of image data captured by the camera, monitors a body portion of a driver of the vehicle and adjusts the camera to adjust the position of where the monitored body portion of the driver is imaged at the imaging array sensor.

Growing community of inventors

Goodrich, MI, United States of America

Steven V Byrne