Importance

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Abstract

An injection molded lens-barrel assembly and method for fabricating lens-barrel and mount assemblies provides a low cost precision optical front end for digital cameras. A barrel is injection-molded around a lens, securing the lens in place. Alternatively, the lens-barrel assembly may be injection molded in one molding stage having two steps. A transparent material is injected to form a lens and an opaque compatible material is injected to form the barrel, yielding a single part that may be mounted to a digital camera. Multiple lens assemblies may be produced by incorporating an alignment feature on each lens to hold the lenses in an external mold fixture. One or more supporting structures are then molded around the multiple lenses, securing them in mechanical alignment.

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First Claim