The compact camera module (CCM) industry has a 35+ billion-dollar market size with close to 10% annual growth rate. Despite significant advances in the CCM for smartphones and digital cameras, including CMOS Image Sensor and lens manufacturing technologies, the opto-mechanics in the CCM is still based on the 150 year old voice coil motor (VCM) technology. The undesirable form-factor, high power consumption, low speed, low accuracy, and magnetic susceptibility of the VCM present bottlenecks for further advancement of the CCM. This presents an opportunity for the silicon-based MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) and micromanufacturing technologies to offer a more efficient, compact, and higher performing alternative solution with a multi-billion-dollar potential market.

In this talk a brief overview of the state of the CCM industry is presented followed by a discussion of the electromechanical aspects of the inner workings of a camera module. Emerging new technologies and companies developing such are introduced and challenges and opportunities for manufacturing such new MEMS products are discussed.