Flexible fluidic lens with polymer membrane and multi-flow structure

Abstract

This paper proposed a fluidic tunable lens with polymer membrane and multi-flow structure. The designed lens mainly consists of five optical layers including one polymer membrane, two solid layers and two liquid layers. A series of slime hexagonal holes are drilled in the solid layers and the lens holders, allowing the optical liquid flowing among the different layers. The integrated structure of the fluidic lens was presented, as well as the lens composition and fabrication process. The deformation process of the fluidic lens are measured and analyzed, and the optical property are simulated using Zemax software. Images captured through a prototype lens at various rotating angles presents almost identical patterns and the same image quality, showing good stability to gravity. The lens focal length can be adjusted flexibly from 32.3 mm to 14.3 mm under a tiny injection volume of 86.4 uL. Numerical analyses show that the lens distortion is less than 3% and relative illumination is above 0.72. The fluidic tunable lens shows the potential to be used in various compact, low cost and stable optical systems.