Patent ID: 6977686

Claim:
A solid-state image pickup apparatus comprising: a flexible printed circuit board having first and second surfaces and an opening through the flexible printed circuit board, the opening being defined by an edge of said flexible printed circuit board; a solid-state image pickup device flip-chip bonded to the first surface of said flexible printed circuit board opposite and facing the opening; and an optical lens, held by a frame, and located on the second surface of said flexible printed circuit board, opposite and facing the opening, wherein distance between an edge of a microlens area of said solid-state image pickup device located within the opening and the edge of said flexible printed circuit board defining the opening is between 2.5 times to 10 times wider than a space between the first surface of said flexible printed circuit board and said solid-state image pickup device, the edge of the microlens area is located within the opening in said flexible printed circuit board, and the microlens area is larger than an image pickup area, and the edge of the microlens area is located between the edge of said flexible printed circuit board defining the opening in said flexible printed circuit board and an edge of the image pickup area.