Patent 9420155 was granted and assigned to Apple (company) on August, 2016 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A compact optic design is disclosed in which an image capture device's cover glass (or other transparent material) is imbued with optic power and affixed directly to the device's housing. A lens barrel, in which one or more additional lens elements are mounted, may be aligned with the optical lens formed by the cover glass and an image sensor to provide a complete camera module.