Friday, Jul 24, 2026 The claims desk. Receipts included. POWERED BY LENZ
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TECH

The Claim

In a voice coil motor (VCM), the magnetic field is provided by a permanent magnet, and the lens position is controlled by varying the current through a copper coil.

The Short Version

The statement accurately describes the basic operating principle of a voice coil lens actuator. In standard VCM designs, a permanent magnet supplies the static magnetic field, and changing current in the coil changes the force that moves the lens. Some implementations add springs, biasing, or feedback, but those details do not negate the claim’s core mechanism.

Caveats

  • The description is simplified: exact lens position may also depend on springs, friction, hysteresis, or feedback control, not only coil current.
  • Some VCM designs are moving-magnet rather than moving-coil, but the same permanent-magnet-plus-coil principle still applies.
  • Certain specialized actuators can hold position with reduced or zero holding current because of mechanical or magnetic biasing.

The Receipts

  1. DRV201 Voice Coil Motor Driver for Camera Auto Focus

    Texas Instruments

  2. US7031116B2 - Moving magnet voice coil motor using Halbach arrays

    Google Patents

  3. Voice coil motor (vcm) optical image stabilization (ois) actuator module

    Google Patents

  4. Miniaturized auto-focusing VCM actuator with zero holding current

    PubMed

  5. Voice-coil actuators in space

    NASA ADS

  6. Everything You Need to Know About Voice Coil Motors

    Stanford Magnets

  7. How Does a Voice Coil Motor Work

    YouTube (ETEL)

  8. Voice Coil Actuators vs Moving Magnet Actuators

    Magnetic Innovations

  9. What is a Voice Coil?

    Magnet-Schultz of America

  10. Voice Coil Motors and Permanent Magnets

    Stanford Advanced Materials

+ 8 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

Voice Coil Motor

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