Voice coil motors (VCMs) have been an important part of smartphone camera assemblies over the last decade, enabling features such as image stabilization and auto focus. DELO presents DELO DUALBOND LT2221 as a universal adhesive for the over 50 bonding tasks in VCM manufacturing. Curing fully at just 60 °C, it needs less energy than competing products to create an effective bond, reportedly making minimal impact on the temperature-sensitive substrates used in VCMs.

VCMs are incredibly small motors, with components measuring at mere millimeters and mostly made of temperature-sensitive materials. Assembling them comes with many stringent temperature and quality requirements, making it important to find the right adhesive to establish these bonds. DELO DUALBOND LT2221 is a dual-curing adhesive whose highlight is its low curing temperature at just 60 °C, making it a perfect adhesive solution for many consumer electronics applications. 

This low-viscosity adhesive is able to create very fine bondlines, which is beneficial for bonding components as small as those in VCMs. With a compression shear strength of up to 8 MPa on LCP, it is as strong of an adhesive as it is versatile.

The adhesive enables extremely fast assembly processes. When using high-intensity DELOLUX curing lamps, it can be light-fixed in just 0.5 seconds, a key benefit given the many bonding tasks in a VCM. Heat-curing of all shadowed areas for achieving final strength can be done all at once, for example in 90 minutes at 60 °C.

”We have a long history of working hands-on with camera module manufacturers to bring them tailor-made solutions, particularly with regard to active alignment,” said Maximilian Baum, head of Product Management for consumer electronics assembly and equipment at DELO. “With this universal, yet high-end adhesive, our customers will be able to use it for almost all of the dozens of bonding tasks in a VCM — something that is rare in today’s highly specialized high-tech manufacturing.”

VCMs are a tiny, yet critical part of smartphone camera modules, enabling features such as auto focusing and optical image stabilization. They are an established technology, having been used increasingly in smartphone cameras for more than a decade. 

Learn more about DELO Industrial Adhesives at www.delo-adhesives.com.