OptiML™ technology makes Tessera the first company to take full advantage of semiconductor fabrication techniques to create a complete camera module with optics,” said Richard Comerford, optoelectronics editor, Electronic Products Magazine. “Not only is it the smallest, most economical device of its kind, but it’s a perfect match for the automated high-speed board fab processes used to create today’s consumer electronics.

OptiML™ WLC is a wafer-level camera technology designed to significantly advance the integration of miniaturized cameras in mobile phones, personal computers, security cameras, and other electronics.  Tessera’s OptiML™ WLC technology makes it possible for cameras to be manufactured at the wafer level, drastically reducing the size and total bill of material cost of camera modules.  As a result of these and other significant benefits, Tessera is providing the electronics industry a powerful tool for integrating cameras into a wider range of electronic products. 

OptiML™ WLC technology can be used for a wide range of camera phone applications, and is designed to scale to multi-mega pixel resolutions.  Wafer level techniques are used to build thousands of lenses on a wafer at the same time.  Multiple lens wafers are then aligned and bonded at the wafer level using Tessera’s OptiML™ WaferStack™ technology.  The need for costly manual focusing is removed due to the accuracy of the WaferStack™ process.  The bonded lens wafers are then diced into individual lens modules, and each lens module is mounted on top of a packaged image sensor.

Reflow compatible materials are used to build the lenses. The result is a camera module that can be mounted directly onto the phone board using the same reflow process used to assemble other electronics.  Assembly through reflow results in lower labor cost, part count and cycle time when incorporating the camera into the phone.