Abstract
We report a complete theoretical model and supporting experimental results on the fabrication and characterization of macroscopic adaptive fluidic lenses with high dioptric power, tunable focal distance, and aperture shape. The lens is 17 mm wide and is made of an elastic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer, which can adaptively restore accommodation distance within several cm according to the fluidic volume mechanically pumped in. Moreover, the lens can provide for magnification in the range of +25 diopter to +100 diopter with optical aberrations within a fraction of a wavelength, and overall lens weight of less than 2 g. The agreement between the non-linear theoretical model describing the elastic membrane deformation and the experimental results is apparent. We stress that these features make the proposed lenses appropriate for the low vision segment, as well as for applications in video magnifiers, camera zooms, telescope and microscopes objectives, and other machine vision applications where large magnification is required.
Highlights
National estimates reveal that the vision correction market in the U.S nowadays is enormous
In many situations visual impairments are combined, for instance most myopia and hyperopia patients suffer from presbyopia requiring multi-focal lenses
As can be observed the membrane is transparent inthe full specturm, and the absolute transmission is above 80 % for all wavelengths as required for optical, medical, and machine vision applicaitons
Summary
National estimates reveal that the vision correction market in the U.S nowadays is enormous. We present the first macroscopic fluidic lens eyewear prototype with high dioptric power (+25D to +100D range) with optical aberrations below a. The lens is made of an elastic polymer which can adaptively modify its optical power according to the fluidic volume mechanically pumped in. Such liquid lens exhibits a large dynamic range, and its focusing properties are polarization independent [8]. While the advantage of electro-wetting lenses is that they can provide for large focusing power with no mechanical moving parts, the disadvantage is a relatively high driving voltage required, in addition to limited stability and liquid evaporation.
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