Image shooting apparatus and mobile terminal

This disclosure provides an image shooting apparatus and a mobile terminal. The image shooting apparatus includes: a support base, an image shooting circuit board, a first image shooting assembly, and a second image shooting assembly. The support base is provided with an accommodating chamber. The image shooting circuit board is disposed in the accommodating chamber, and divides the accommodating chamber into a first accommodating chamber and a second accommodating chamber. The first image shooting assembly is disposed in the first accommodating chamber, and the second image shooting assembly is disposed in the second accommodating chamber. The first image shooting assembly includes a first lens and a first image sensor. The second image shooting assembly includes a second lens and a second image sensor.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of this disclosure relate to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to an image shooting apparatus and a mobile terminal.

BACKGROUND

With the development of mobile communication technologies, mobile terminals such as smartphones and tablet computers have become an indispensable tool in people's daily lives. People have increasingly higher requirements for mobile terminals, particularly an image shooting function of mobile terminals. An existing mobile terminal is generally provided with a front-facing camera and a rear-facing camera. The front-facing camera is mainly used in special scenes such as taking a selfie or shooting a video with another person. The rear-facing camera is mainly used in scenes other than the foregoing special scenes, so as to satisfy requirements of people for the mobile terminal to shoot in different usage scenes, and make shooting more convenient and improve shooting quality.

However, at present, to install a front-facing camera and a rear-facing camera in a mobile terminal, it is generally necessary to provide mounting holes at two different locations on a main circuit board of the mobile terminal. As a result, the front-facing camera and the rear-facing camera occupy a large installation clearance, which affects installation of other parts in the mobile terminal. A problem may be seen that a large installation clearance is occupied when a front-facing camera and a rear-facing camera are installed in the existing mobile terminal.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of this disclosure provide an image shooting apparatus and a mobile terminal to solve the problem that a large installation clearance is occupied when a front-facing camera and a rear-facing camera are installed in an existing mobile terminal.

To resolve the foregoing technical problem, this disclosure is implemented as follows.

According to a first aspect, an embodiment of this disclosure provides an image shooting apparatus, including a support base, an image shooting circuit board, a first image shooting assembly, and a second image shooting assembly. The support base is provided with an accommodating chamber. The image shooting circuit board is disposed in the accommodating chamber, and the image shooting circuit board divides the accommodating chamber into a first accommodating chamber and a second accommodating chamber. The first image shooting assembly is disposed in the first accommodating chamber, and the second image shooting assembly is disposed in the second accommodating chamber.

The first image shooting assembly includes a first lens and a first image sensor, where the first image sensor is attached to a first side of the image shooting circuit board, and the first image sensor receives an incident light passing through the first lens for imaging.

The second image shooting assembly includes a second lens and a second image sensor, where the second image sensor is attached to a second side of the image shooting circuit board, the second side opposite to the first side, and the second image sensor receives an incident light passing through the second lens for imaging.

According to a second aspect, an embodiment of this disclosure further provides a mobile terminal, including the foregoing image shooting apparatus.

The image shooting apparatus according to this embodiment of this disclosure includes: a support base, an image shooting circuit board, a first image shooting assembly, and a second image shooting assembly. The support base is provided with an accommodating chamber. The image shooting circuit board is disposed in the accommodating chamber, and the image shooting circuit board divides the accommodating chamber into a first accommodating chamber and a second accommodating chamber. The first image shooting assembly is disposed in the first accommodating chamber, and the second image shooting assembly is disposed in the second accommodating chamber. The first image shooting assembly includes a first lens and a first image sensor, where the first image sensor is attached to a first side of the image shooting circuit board, and the first image sensor receives an incident light passing through the first lens for imaging. The second image shooting assembly includes a second lens and a second image sensor, where the second image sensor is attached to a second side of the image shooting circuit board, the second side opposite to the first side, and the second image sensor receives an incident light passing through the second lens for imaging. In this way, the image shooting apparatus provided by this disclosure integrates the first image shooting assembly and second image shooting assembly, and the lenses of the first image shooting assembly and second image shooting assembly are oriented to opposite directions. When applied to a mobile terminal, the first image shooting assembly and second image shooting assembly may be used as a front-facing camera and a rear-facing camera of the mobile terminal respectively. Compared with the manner in the related art where two camera modules are used as a front-facing camera and a rear-facing camera respectively, this reduces space occupied by the front-facing camera and the rear-facing camera in the mobile terminal, improves space utilization of the complete device, and increases stacking flexibility of parts of the complete device on a circuit board.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The following clearly describes the technical solutions in the embodiments of this disclosure with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of this disclosure. Apparently, the described embodiments are some rather than all of the embodiments of this disclosure. All other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments of this disclosure without creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of this disclosure. Referring to bothFIG.1andFIG.2,FIG.1is a three-dimensional schematic structural diagram of an image shooting apparatus100according to an embodiment of this disclosure, andFIG.2is a schematic cross-sectional structural diagram of the image shooting apparatus100inFIG.1along a line A-A. As shown inFIG.1andFIG.2, the image shooting apparatus100includes a support base10, an image shooting circuit board20, a first image shooting assembly30, and a second image shooting assembly40. The support base10is provided with an accommodating chamber. The image shooting circuit board20is disposed in the accommodating chamber, and the image shooting circuit board20divides the accommodating chamber into a first accommodating chamber101and a second accommodating chamber102. The first image shooting assembly30is disposed in the first accommodating chamber101, and the second image shooting assembly40is disposed in the second accommodating chamber102.

The first image shooting assembly30includes a first lens31and a first image sensor32. The first image sensor32is attached to a first side of the image shooting circuit board20. The first image sensor32receives an incident light passing through the first lens31for imaging.

The second image shooting assembly40includes a second lens41and a second image sensor42. The second image sensor42is attached to a second side of the image shooting circuit board20, where the second side is opposite to the first side. The second image sensor42receives an incident light passing through the second lens41for imaging.

In the embodiment of this disclosure, the first image shooting assembly30and the second image shooting assembly40are disposed in the support base10, and the first image shooting assembly30and the second image shooting assembly40may be implemented as having opposite shooting directions. Therefore, when the image shooting apparatus100is installed on a main circuit board of an electronic device such as a mobile terminal, only one mounting hole fitting with the image shooting apparatus100is needed to be provided on the main circuit board. In this way, functions of a front-facing camera and a rear-facing camera of the electronic device can be implemented by the first image shooting assembly30and the second image shooting assembly40. Compared with the manner in the related art where two camera modules are used as a front-facing camera and a rear-facing camera respectively, this reduces space occupied by the front-facing camera and the rear-facing camera in the electronic device, improves space utilization of the complete device, and increases stacking flexibility of parts of the complete device on a circuit board.

The first image shooting assembly and the second image shooting assembly may be in a camera structure that has a fixed focal-length. In this case, the foregoing support base10may be a fixed support base that is provided with the foregoing accommodating chamber penetrating therethrough, and the image shooting circuit board20, the first image shooting assembly30and the second image shooting assembly40are fixed in the accommodating chamber, such that the first image shooting assembly30and the second image shooting assembly40may only shoot at a fixed focal length.

Alternatively, the first image shooting assembly and the second image shooting assembly may be in a zooming-enabled camera structure. As shown inFIG.3, the image shooting apparatus100may further include a first drive motor11, where the first drive motor11is disposed in the accommodating chamber, and the first drive motor11is capable of driving the first lens31and the second lens41to move.

In this embodiment, the first drive motor11can simultaneously drive the first image shooting assembly30and the second image shooting assembly40to move, allowing the first lens31and the second lens41to perform zoom shooting separately. When the first drive motor11drives the first lens31and the second lens41to move, if the first image shooting assembly30is in a shooting mode, a focal length of the first image shooting assembly30may be changed; and if the second image shooting assembly40is in a shooting mode, the focal length of the second image shooting assembly40may be changed. This structure is simple, and helps improve shooting quality. In the above solution, the drive motor of the first lens and the drive motor of the second lens are integrated as one drive motor configured to provide focusing of the two image shooting assemblies. In this way, the integrated drive motor design is beneficial to reduce an overall height of the image shooting apparatus.

Certainly, in other embodiments, the first image shooting assembly and the second image shooting assembly may each use a different drive motor for focusing. As shown inFIG.4, the foregoing image shooting apparatus100may also include a second drive motor12and/or a third drive motor13, where the second drive motor12is disposed in the first accommodating chamber101, where the second drive motor12is capable of driving the first lens31to move;

and the third drive motor13is disposed in the second accommodating chamber102, where the third drive motor13is capable of driving the second lens41to move.

When the first image shooting assembly30is in shooting mode, the second drive motor12is capable of driving the first lens31to move, such that the focal length of the first image shooting assembly30may be changed during shooting. When the second image shooting assembly40is in shooting mode, the third drive motor13is capable of driving the second lens41to move, such that the focal length of the second image shooting assembly40may be changed during shooting. As such, the first image shooting assembly30and the second image shooting assembly40may perform focusing by using the two drive motors respectively, which enables easy and highly reliable focusing.

It should be noted that in the foregoing image shooting apparatus100, it is possible that only the first image shooting assembly30or only the second image shooting assembly40has a focusing function. If only the first image shooting assembly30has the focusing function, the image shooting apparatus100is provided with only the second drive motor12. If only the second image shooting assembly40has the focusing function, the image shooting apparatus100is provided with only the third drive motor13. Certainly, it is also possible that both the first image shooting assembly30and the second image shooting assembly40have the focusing function, which means that both the second drive motor12and the third drive motor13are provided in the image shooting apparatus100.

In addition, when the image shooting apparatus100is provided with the second drive motor12, the image shooting apparatus100may also be provided with the first drive motor11, where the first drive motor11drives the second lens41to move, and together with the second drive motor12, drives the first lens31to move. Similarly, the foregoing image shooting apparatus100may be provided with both the first drive motor11and the third drive motor13, or even all of the first drive motor11, the second drive motor12and the third drive motor13. This is not limited herein.

In an embodiment of this disclosure, the foregoing image shooting circuit board20is configured to carry the first image sensor32and the second image sensor42. The image shooting circuit board20is connected to a main circuit board of the electronic device. Wires on the image shooting circuit board20may transmit signals of the first image sensor32and the second image sensor42to other elements (such as a processor) on the main circuit board of the electronic device.

The image shooting circuit board20is connected to the main circuit board of the electronic device. As shown inFIG.5, it is possible that the foregoing image shooting apparatus100further includes a connecting circuit board50, where the connecting circuit board50is connected to the image shooting circuit board20by passing through a side wall of the support base10. The image shooting circuit board20is electrically connected to an external circuit through the connecting circuit board50, thereby reducing installation difficulty and providing a stable and reliable connection between the image shooting circuit board20and the external circuit.

That the connecting circuit board50is connected to the image shooting circuit board20by passing through a side wall of the support base10may be implemented by making a through-hole into the side wall of the support base10for the connecting circuit board50to pass through. This is not limited herein.

It should be noted that the connecting circuit board50may be any circuit board, provided that it provides an electrical connection between the image shooting circuit board20and the external circuit. For example, the connecting circuit board50may be a flexible printed circuit (Flexible Printed Circuit, FPC) board that has advantages such as a small thickness and good bendability, such that the connection between the image shooting circuit board20and the external circuit is more stable and reliable.

The image shooting circuit board20may transmit an electrical signal of the first image shooting assembly30and an electrical signal of the second image shooting assembly40to the main circuit board through the connecting circuit board50, and the connecting circuit board50needs to be provided with wires for transmitting the electrical signal of the first image shooting assembly30and the electrical signal of the second image shooting circuit40. As such, in order that the connecting circuit board50would not become too wide due to the wiring, the connecting circuit board50can be implemented as a double-layer or multilayer FPC.

In addition, the image shooting circuit board20may alternatively be any circuit board that can carry the first image sensor32and the second image sensor42, and transmit the electrical signal of the first image sensor32and the electrical signal of the second image sensor42. As shown inFIG.6, the image shooting circuit board20may also include a first circuit board21, a second circuit board22, and a heat conducting layer23. The first image sensor32is attached to the first circuit board21. The second image sensor42is attached to the second circuit board22. The heat conducting layer23is disposed between the first circuit board21and the second circuit board22. The first circuit board21may be used to carry the first image sensor32and transmit the electrical signal of the first image sensor32through, and the second circuit board22may be used to carry the second image sensor42and transmit the electrical signal of the second image sensor42.

It should be noted that disposing the heat conducting layer23(for example, a high-performance heat dissipation material such as heat conducting silica gel or graphite or copper foil) between the first circuit board21and the second circuit board22can improve a heat dissipation performance of the image shooting circuit board20, and improve a service life of the image shooting apparatus100.

In the above solution, the image shooting circuit board20is implemented by using two circuit boards (namely, the first circuit board21and the second circuit board22). Certainly, the image shooting circuit board20may alternatively be implemented by using one circuit board. In this case, the image shooting circuit board20may be a double-layer or multilayer circuit board, and a plurality of copper layers are provided in the multilayer circuit board. In this way, compared with the foregoing manner of implementing the image shooting circuit board as two circuit boards, implementing the image shooting circuit board as one circuit board saves one layer of circuit board and a gap between the two circuit boards, which further reduces the thickness of the image shooting circuit board20, making the entire image shooting apparatus more compact, further reducing the installation space occupied by the image shooting apparatus100in the electronic device, and improving the practicability and adaptability of the entire image shooting apparatus. In addition, with the plurality of copper layers provided in the multilayer circuit board, heat conducting performance of the image shooting circuit board20can be improved.

In an embodiment of this disclosure, the first lens31and the second lens41are disposed on two sides of the image shooting circuit board20respectively, which may be that the first lens31and the second lens41are arranged to be exactly opposite to each other on the two sides of the image shooting circuit board20, thereby further reducing the installation space on the main circuit board of the electronic device occupied by the image shooting apparatus100.

Certainly, as shown inFIG.7aandFIG.7b, the first lens31and the second lens41may alternatively be arranged alternately on two sides of the image shooting circuit board20, such that the first lens31and the second lens41are distributed more flexibly.

It should be noted that when the first lens31and the second lens41are disposed alternately, the foregoing first lens31and the second lens41may both be disposed in one drive motor, such that the first image shooting assembly30and the second image shooting assembly40may perform focusing separately. Alternatively, the first lens31and the second lens41may be disposed each in a separate drive motor, such that the first image shooting assembly30and the second camera assembly40may perform focusing by using the two drive motors respectively. Alternatively, the support base10may include only one drive motor, and the first lens31or the second lens41is disposed in the drive motor, such that one of the first image shooting assembly30and the second image shooting assembly40may perform focusing during shooting, while the other has a fixed focal length during shooting. This is not limited herein.

In an embodiment of this disclosure, in order to improve shooting quality of the first image shooting assembly30and the second image shooting assembly40, as shown inFIG.8, the first image shooting assembly30may further include a first light filter support61and a first light filter62, where the first light filter support61is disposed between the first lens31and the image shooting circuit board20, and the first light filter support61supports the first light filter62. An incident light received by the first lens31is transmitted to the first image sensor32through the first light filter62. In addition, the second image shooting assembly40further includes a second light filter support71and a second light filter72, where the light filter support71is disposed between the second lens41and the image shooting circuit board20, and the second light filter support71supports the second light filter72. An incident light received by the second lens41is transmitted to the second image sensor42through the second light filter72. As such, quality of an image shot by the first image shooting assembly30may be improved through the first light filter62, and quality of an image shot by the second image shooting assembly40may be improved by the second light filter72.

Certainly, in the foregoing image shooting apparatus100, alternatively, it is possible that the first light filter support61and the first light filter62are provided in the first image shooting assembly30, while the second light filter support71and the second light filter72are not provided in the second image shooting assembly40; or that the second light filter support71and the second light filter72are provided in the second image shooting assembly40, while the first light filter support61and the first light filter62are not provided in the first image shooting assembly30. This is not limited herein.

In addition, as shown inFIG.9a, the first image shooting assembly30may further include a third light filter81, where the third light filter81is disposed in the first lens31, and an incident light received by the first lens31is transmitted to the first image sensor32through the third light filter81. In addition, the second image shooting assembly40may further include a fourth light filter82, where the fourth light filter82is disposed in the second lens41, and an incident light received by the second lens41is transmitted to the second image sensor42through the fourth light filter82. In this way, not only quality of an image shot by the first image shooting assembly30can be improved through the third light filter81, and quality of the image shot by the second image shooting assembly40can be improved by the fourth light filter82, but also, as the third light filter81is disposed in the first lens31, the third light filter81does not occupy space between the first lens31and the first image sensor32, which can reduce a gap between the first lens31and the first image sensor32and reduce a volume of the first image shooting assembly30, thereby significantly reducing a thickness H of the image shooting apparatus100. Similarly, disposing the fourth light filter82in the second lens41can also reduce a gap between the second lens41and the second image sensor42, thereby reducing the thickness of the image shooting apparatus100, and further reducing the installation space occupied by the image shooting apparatus100in the electronic device.

In addition, as integrating a light filter into a lens is a processing scheme well known in the art, this method can also reduce complexity in designing the image shooting assemblies, reduce development difficulty, improve product yield rate, and save production cost.

It should be noted that, alternatively, in the image shooting apparatus100, it is possible that the third light filter81is provided in the first image shooting assembly30, while the fourth light filter82is not provided in the second image shooting assembly40; or that the fourth light filter82is provided in the second image shooting assembly40, while the third light filter81is not provided in the first image shooting assembly30. This can also reduce the thickness H of the image shooting apparatus100to some extent, thereby reducing the installation space occupied by the image shooting apparatus100in electronic device.

For example, if only the first image shooting assembly30(which may be a front-facing camera) is required to provide an infrared face recognition function, it is possible only providing the third light filter81in the first lens31, and the third light filter81may filter out colored light other than red light, as shown inFIG.9b. Certainly, similarly, if only the second image shooting assembly40(which may be a rear-facing camera) is required to provide an infrared face recognition function, a light filter that filters out colored light other than infrared light may be provided in the second lens41.

The image shooting apparatus100according to the embodiments of this disclosure includes: a support base, an image shooting circuit board, a first image shooting assembly, and a second image shooting assembly. The support base is provided with an accommodating chamber. The image shooting circuit board is disposed in the accommodating chamber, and the image shooting circuit board divides the accommodating chamber into a first accommodating chamber and a second accommodating chamber. The first image shooting assembly is disposed in the first accommodating chamber, and the second image shooting assembly is disposed in the second accommodating chamber. The first image shooting assembly includes a first lens and a first image sensor, where the first image sensor is attached to a first side of the image shooting circuit board, and the first image sensor receives an incident light passing through the first lens for imaging. The second image shooting assembly includes a second lens and a second image sensor. The second image sensor is attached to a second side of the image shooting circuit board, the second side opposite to the first side, and the second image sensor receives an incident light passing through the second lens for imaging. In this way, the image shooting apparatus provided by this disclosure integrates the first image shooting assembly and second image shooting assembly, and the lenses of the first image shooting assembly and second image shooting assembly are oriented to opposite directions. When applied to a mobile terminal, the first image shooting assembly and second image shooting assembly may be used as a front-facing camera and a rear-facing camera of the mobile terminal respectively. Compared with the manner in the related art where two camera modules are used as a front-facing camera and a rear-facing camera respectively, this reduces space occupied by the front-facing camera and the rear-facing camera in the mobile terminal, improves space utilization of the complete device, and increases stacking flexibility of parts of the complete device on a circuit board.

Based on the foregoing image shooting apparatus100, an embodiment of this disclosure further provides a mobile terminal, including the foregoing image shooting apparatus100.

Since structuring of the mobile terminal body is a related art, and the image shooting apparatus100has been described in detail in the foregoing embodiments, the specific structure of the mobile terminal is not described in detail in this embodiment.

In this embodiment of this disclosure, the mobile terminal may be any mobile terminal provided with the foregoing image shooting apparatus100, for example, a mobile phone, a tablet computer (Tablet Personal Computer), a laptop computer (Laptop Computer), a personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant, PDA), a mobile internet device (Mobile Internet Device, MID), or a wearable device (Wearable Device).

The embodiments of this disclosure are described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but this disclosure is not limited to the foregoing implementations. The foregoing implementations are only illustrative rather than restrictive. Inspired by this disclosure, a person of ordinary skill in the art can still derive many variations without departing from the essence of this disclosure and the protection scope of the claims. All these variations shall fall within the protection of this disclosure.