Methods and apparatus for aligning a lens holder in a small-height scan engine

An assembly apparatus for aligning a lens holder in a scan engine, the assembly apparatus comprising:

• a first fixture configured to hold a circuit board having an image sensor mounted thereon;
• a second fixture configured to hold a lens holder holding one or more lenses or optical elements;
• a machine vision camera;
• and
• a controller configured to
• control at least one of the first fixture or the second fixture to optically align the lens holder with the image sensor based upon one or more images captured by the image sensor through the lens holder,
• control the camera to capture one or more images of a surface of the lens holder together with an edge of the circuit board, and
• after the optical alignment, control the at least one of the first fixture or the second fixture to move based upon the edge of the circuit board.

A non-transitory, computer-readable, storage medium storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause an assembly apparatus to:

• control a first fixture of the assembly apparatus to secure a circuit board having an image sensor mounted thereon;
• control a second fixture of the assembly apparatus to secure a lens holder holding one or more lenses or optical elements;
• control at least one of the first fixture or the second fixture to optically align the lens holder with the image sensor based upon one or more images captured by the image sensor through the lens holder;
• control a camera of the assembly apparatus to capture one or more images of a surface of the lens holder together with an edge of the circuit board;
• and
• after the optically alignment, control at least one of the first fixture or the second fixture to move based upon a misalignment between the surface of the lens holder and the edge of the circuit board.

A scan engine comprising:

• a circuit board;
• an image sensor mounted to the circuit board;
• and
• a lens holder holding one or more lenses or optical elements mounted to the circuit board above the image sensor,
• wherein the image sensor is configured to capture images of a field of view through the lens holder, and wherein a surface of the lens holder is coplanar with an edge of the circuit board such that the lens holder is not optically aligned with the image sensor along at least one axis.