Patent ID: 7542222

Claim:
A lens barrel drive apparatus comprising: a guide member adapted to guide an optical component along an optical axis; hollow magnets disposed on an outer peripheral side of the optical component and having magnetized portions alternately magnetized to different poles in a circumferential direction; a cylindrical rotor disposed rotatably with respect to said magnets and formed of a soft magnetic material, said cylindrical rotor comprising magnetic pole portions opposed to the magnetized portions of said magnets; a coil adapted to magnetize the magnetic pole portions of said rotor; a stator adapted to fix said magnets and said coil; and a conversion unit adapted to convert rotating movements of said rotor into forward and backward movements of the optical component along the optical axis, wherein said magnets comprise breaks formed along the optical axis, and said guide member is disposed in the break of said magnets, said rotor comprises a rotary yoke having the magnetic pole portions, and a rotor having an inner periphery to which said rotary yoke is fixed, and said conversion unit comprises a female thread portion formed at the inner periphery of said rotor, and a male thread portion formed in said guide member and adapted to be engaged with said female thread portion.