US 12,455,428 B2
Lens unit and camera module
Akira Inaba, Kyoto (JP); Hiroyuki Hirama, Kyoto (JP); Yasushi Kato, Kyoto (JP); Takayuki Suginome, Kyoto (JP); and Yusuke Baba, Kyoto (JP)
Assigned to MAXELL, LTD., Kyoto (JP)
Appl. No. 17/433,611
Filed by Maxell, Ltd., Kyoto (JP)
PCT Filed Feb. 26, 2020, PCT No. PCT/JP2020/007684
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Aug. 25, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/175536, PCT Pub. Date Sep. 3, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 2019-033018 (JP), filed on Feb. 26, 2019; application No. 2019-083680 (JP), filed on Apr. 25, 2019; application No. 2019-147375 (JP), filed on Aug. 9, 2019; application No. 2019-232765 (JP), filed on Dec. 24, 2019; and application No. 2019-232770 (JP), filed on Dec. 24, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0146777 A1, May 12, 2022
Int. Cl. G02B 7/02 (2021.01); H04N 23/55 (2023.01)
CPC G02B 7/021 (2013.01) [G02B 7/025 (2013.01); H04N 23/55 (2023.01)] 33 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A lens unit comprising:
an optical element including at least a lens group in which a plurality of lenses are arranged along an optical axis;
a cylindrical lens barrel having an inner accommodation space for accommodating and holding the optical element; and
a sealing member for sealing a space inside the lens barrel between a first lens and the lens barrel, wherein
the lens group includes the first lens located closest to the object side thereof; and a second lens adjacent to the first lens on the image side thereof,
optical elements and/or the optical element and the lens barrel are bonded to each other in an airtight state, such that an inter-lens space between the first lens and the second lens is sealed to the outside,
facing surfaces of the first lens and the second lens facing each other in the optical axis direction are bonded to each other using an adhesion medium having radial followability in a manner such that the inter-lens space is sealed to the outside, and
adhesive areas of the facing surfaces of the first lens and the second lens that are bonded to each other by the adhesion medium face the space inside the lens barrel that is sealed by the sealing member, wherein adhesive areas of facing surfaces of the first lens and the second lens face and overlap, in a radial direction, the inner accommodation space inside the lens barrel sealed by the sealing member, via a space formed between the first lens and the lens barrel.