Lens driving mechanism having an actuator
AssigneeNikon Corporation
InventorsHiroyuki Kurokawa, Hirotake Nozaki, Akira Yamamoto
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A lens driving mechanism for moving a lens in its optical axis direction has a lens frame for holding the lens, guide means for guiding the lens frame to be movable in the optical axis direction of the lens, and an actuator having an actuation portion that moves in a direction nearly parallel to the optical axis of the lens. In the lens driving mechanism, the lens frame and the actuation portion are directly or indirectly connected so that the lens frame does not move in the optical axis direction relative to the actuation portion of the actuator.
Claims41
A lens driving mechanism for moving a lens in an optical axis direction thereof, comprising:
- a lens frame to hold said lens;
- a guide to guide said lens frame to be movable in the optical axis direction of said lens;
- and
- an actuator having an actuation portion that moves in a direction nearly parallel to an optical axis of said lens,
- wherein said lens frame and said actuation portion are directly or indirectly connected so that said lens frame does not move in the optical axis direction relative to said actuation portion of said actuator.
A lens driving mechanism for moving a lens in an optical axis direction thereof, comprising:
- a lens frame to hold said lens;
- a guide device to guide said lens frame to be movable in the optical axis direction of said lens;
- and
- an actuator having an actuator casing and an actuation portion which moves in a direction nearly parallel to an optical axis of said lens,
- wherein two end portions of said actuation portion of said actuator in the optical axis direction project from said actuator casing, and
- said lens frame is formed with a first contact portion that contacts one of the end portions of said actuation portion, and a second contact portion that contacts the other of the end portions of said actuation portion.
A lens driving mechanism for moving a lens in an optical axis direction thereof in a lens barrel, comprising:
- a lens frame to hold said lens;
- a guide to guide said lens frame to be movable in the optical axis direction of said lens;
- and
- an actuator having an actuator casing and an actuation portion which moves relative to said actuator casing in a direction nearly parallel to an optical axis of said lens,
- wherein two end portions of said actuation portion of said actuator in the optical axis direction project from said actuator casing,
- said actuator casing is fixed to said lens frame;
- and
- said lens barrel is formed with first and second contact portions which respectively contact the two end portions of said actuator, said actuation portion being not movable in the optical axis direction relative to said lens barrel.
A lens driving mechanism for moving a lens in an optical axis direction thereof, comprising:
- a lens frame to hold said lens;
- a guide to guide said lens frame to be movable in the optical axis direction of said lens;
- and
- an actuator to move said lens in the optical axis direction together with said lens frame, said actuator having:
- an actuator main body having an actuation portion which reciprocally moves in a predetermined direction;
- a wire member having flexibility, and one end portion of which contacts said lens frame or is directly or indirectly coupled to said lens frame, said wire member being not movable in the optical axis direction relative to said lens frame, and the other end portion of which contacts said actuation portion of said actuator main body or is directly or indirectly coupled to said actuation portion, said wire member being not movable in the predetermined direction relative to said actuation portion;
- and a guide member to movably guide said wire member.
An actuator, an actuation end of which projects/retreats, comprising:
- a rotor shaft extending in a predetermined direction and having a male screw formed on a portion of an outer circumferential surface thereof;
- a rotor attached to said rotor shaft, said rotor being not rotatable about said rotor shaft but movable in an extending direction of said rotor shaft relative to said rotor shaft;
- a stator arranged around said rotor and rotates said rotor;
- an actuator casing that covers said rotor and said stator;
- a nut member fixed to said actuator casing and formed with a female screw that meshes with the male screw of said rotor shaft;
- a wire member having flexibility, and one end portion of which is coupled to an end portion of said rotor, said wire member being not movable in the predetermined direction and not rotatable relative to said rotor shaft, and the other end portion of which serves as the actuation end;
- and
- a guide member to movably guide said wire member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.