Gravity‐Controlled and Boundary‐Constrained High‐Throughput Fabrication of Polymeric Miniature Lens Arrays

Abstract

AbstractThis paper reports a facile and high‐throughput method for the controllable fabrication of polymeric miniature lens arrays. Through filling the miniature holes in an additively manufactured template, the curved lenslets are formed in each hole in s steady state, in which the gravity and surface tension of the liquid resin are balanced. Both shapes and curvatures can be controlled by tuning the gravity force and the boundary condition for the resin in each hole. Taking the circular holes for example, the relationship between the formed curvature and the gravity force is described by both analytical and finite element‐based numerical models. Experimentally, the curvature variation and the effect of various boundary conditions on the lenslet surface shapes are also verified, and further examination on the optical features of the spherical miniature lens arrays including the imaging and focus properties demonstrates the effectiveness of the developed fabrication method.