Simulation and Analysis of Liquid Lens Behaviour for Machine Vision Applications -CA13 (AFT)

Abstract

Sophisticated technology led to use artificial vision to inspect products during their manufacturing process, to meet required quality and industry standards. Due to customized requirements of products and rapid change over of batches, vision systems find it difficult to quickly adapt with the changing environment. With the presence of mechanical moving parts and manual adjustments, it becomes a tedious process to change the lens in the vision system to match its inspection parameters. On the other hand, liquid lens stands as a strong solution that can adjust its focus automatically. By using electrowetting technique, properties of the liquid in the lens are changed and its corresponding behaviors are studied that helps to understand the autofocus effect. So, this paper discusses about the design, finite element simulation and analysis of liquid lens in a micro-opto-electro-mechanical system using COMSOL multiphysics software. Effect of insulating thickness, insulating fluid viscosity, variations in contact angle on the auto focus are majorly investigated with the help of electro statically induced deformation in the liquid lens system. Changes in the surface velocity magnitude, surface pressure and meniscus height are taken into consideration for analysis. These results help to design the lens used in digital cameras with optimized parameters like low power consumption, composite material selection, miniaturization etc., for versatile machine vision applications.