The reduction in size of a digital camera leads to several fundamental technology issues that are challenging the industry. As the size of an optical system is reduced, ray tracing indicates that the optical performance should not change so long as the optical system operates above the diffraction limit. In practice, however, the performance of an optical system is largely dependent on the alignment tolerances of the optical elements. As the optical system is reduced in size, these tolerances have to be reduced in proportion in order to maintain the same optical performance. Thus, the reduction in size of a camera, if maintaining a similar optical performance, is limited by the precision of the manufacturing and alignment technologies that are utilized. For example plastic injection molding and metal stamping have dimensional inaccuracy of about 25 microns, and these inaccuracies are already used to their limit in relatively large stand-alone digital cameras. MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical-systems) technology uses sub-micron precision photolithography and etching of silicon wafers to enable moving mechanical structures with less than 1 micron tolerance. This technology enables the required improvement in alignment accuracies needed for high performance miniature digital cameras in cell phones.		Smaller profile camera modules with reduced 'Z' height & xy-dimensions Fast, repeatable, and accurate movement within one micron Virtually no hysteresis Fast AF algorithms (continuous focus) High 'g-shock' performance due to silicon material strength, reduced travel, and integrated actuator design Designs can be leveraged to add additional product features (shutter, stabilization, zoom) into a single device Reduces camera module 'BOM', simplifies assembly, and lowers cost Compatible with optics scaling laws and increasingly demanding manufacturing tolerances