Adaptive Lens Inspired by Bio-Visual Systems

Abstract

Abstract : During the DARPA BOSS I program, the UCSD team has made substantial progress in the following areas: (a) We have identified and demonstrated the merits of PDMS elastomer for lens membranes. The PDMS-based fluidic lens process has been proven to be simple, controllable, and scalable to form lenses from 10 urn to several centimeters in diameter. (b) We have demonstrated fluidic tunable lenses with an exceedingly wide tuning range and strong lens power. Most tunable lenses that have been demonstrated today can only achieve a large f-number (or weak lens power)in the order of 10 to 15. Our tunable lens is the first and only device that can achieve an f-number of 0.7 and an extremely wide tuning range from f# = 0.7 to > 100. The strong lens power and the wide tuning range are the keys to many superior and unique functions of imaging systems. (c) We have successfully extended the single-chamber fluidic lens structure into multi-chamber lens structures. As a result, one can not only achieve a wide tuning range in focal distance, f-number, and numerical aperture, but also obtain the extreme structure can be transformed into any of the following structures: plano-convex, plano-concave, double-convex, double-concave, positive-meniscus, and negative-miniscus, reversibly.