Camera Imaging Lens Fabrication using Wafer-Scale UV Embossing Process

Abstract

We have developed a compact and cost-effective camera module on the basis of wafer-scale-replica processing. A multiple-layered structure of several aspheric lenses in a mobile-phone camera module is first assembled by bonding multiple glass-wafers on which 2-dimensional replica arrays of identical aspheric lenses are UV-embossed, followed by dicing the stacked wafers and packaging them with image sensor chips. This wafer-scale processing leads to at least 95% yield in mass-production, and potentially to a very slim phone with camera-module less than 2 mm in thickness. We have demonstrated a VGA camera module fabricated by the wafer-scale-replica processing with various UV-curable polymers having refractive indices between 1.4 and 1.6, and with three different glass-wafers of which both surfaces are embossed as aspheric lenses having <TEX>$230{\mu}m$</TEX> sag-height and aspheric-coefficients of lens polynomials up to tenth-order. We have found that precise compensation in material shrinkage of the polymer materials is one of the most technical challenges, in orderto achieve a higher resolution in wafer-scaled lenses for mobile-phone camera modules.