Johnson Electric Invented NanoLens

Johnson Electric offers an improved AF lens for camera-phones (link). It's supposed to be faster, more accurate and noise-free.

"NanoLens™ was created by a team of experts at Johnson Electric’s Value Innovation Center in Shenzhen, China. Development team members included micro component tool designers from Johnson Electric’s Nihon Mini Motor Inc, in Japan, leading piezo motion systems designers from Johnson Electric’s Nanomotion Ltd., in Israel and production experts from Johnson Electric in China.

The team members all converged in the Value Innovation Center where components were prototyped overnight for engineering testing. Prototype systems were fabricated in Shenzhen, and sent to Israel for engineering qualification tests, while molds and tools were crafted in Japan and dispatched to China for production use. The end product leapfrogs competition from Japan, USA and Europe."

NanoLens is demonstated in Transchip booth at 3G World Congress, suggesting that Transchip is the first customer (NanoLens flyer).