Alps Electric has completed the development of the FPDJ9 series, which has achieved the industry’s first wide-angle (90° field angle) optical size*2 1/10 inch VGA camera module for use in mobile phones and handheld game machines. Sample shipments of the module will commence from July 2009.

The use of mobile phone-mounted cameras to take photos and videos of scenery, people and other objects as mementos has become popular in recent years. Moreover, such photography extends beyond simple scenery shots; an increasing number of people use their mobile phone sub cameras to take self-portraits, sometimes including others in such photographs. However, because of the 60° field angle of most conventional cameras, the number of people and amount of scenery that can fit within such a shot is limited, leading to instances in which the picture taker’s image does not fit well into the photograph or the faces of companions are cut off, even if the picture taker extends his/her arm and hand to the very limit. This has spurred demand for mobile phone cameras capable of taking photographs with an even wider field of view. Despite this, wide-angle cameras have until now required LSI and other technologies to correct wide-angle lens distortion and have thus been limited to special applications, such as vehicle-mounted and security cameras.

The FPDJ9 series has the industry’s thinnest*3 main component size (width: 5.0mm, depth: 5.0mm, height: 2.74mm), while possessing the industry’s first 1/10 inch VGA camera module capable of taking wide-angle photographs (90° field angle).

Possessing wide-angle (90° diagonal field angle) photographic capabilities, the FPDJ9 series simultaneously achieves a thin (2.74mm) and high-quality (F2.8) design owing to the use of an Alps Electric lens based on the Company’s proprietary lens simulation and optical design as well as a unique barrel-lens structure that attaches the lens directly to the housing. Consequently, this compact and thin wide-angle camera can be easily mounted on mobile phones due to its ability to produce images that need no correction.

Owing to the realization of a compact, thin and wide-angle camera module, the FPDJ9 series can also be installed in laptop computers and other devices, making it possible to use this product in conference network cameras and cameras that photograph documents. Not merely for photography, this series is expected to find applications in image recognition sensors that extend over a broad range.