Development of a low cost high precision three-layer 3D artificial compound eye

Abstract

Artificial compound eyes are typically designed on planar substrates due to the limits of current imaging devices and available manufacturing processes. In this study, a high precision, low cost, three-layer 3D artificial compound eye consisting of a 3D microlens array, a freeform lens array, and a field lens array was constructed to mimic an apposition compound eye on a curved substrate. The freeform microlens array was manufactured on a curved substrate to alter incident light beams and steer their respective images onto a flat image plane. The optical design was performed using ZEMAX. The optical simulation shows that the artificial compound eye can form multiple images with aberrations below 11 μm; adequate for many imaging applications. Both the freeform lens array and the field lens array were manufactured using microinjection molding process to reduce cost. Aluminum mold inserts were diamond machined by the slow tool servo method. The performance of the compound eye was tested using a home-built optical setup. The images captured demonstrate that the proposed structures can successfully steer images from a curved surface onto a planar photoreceptor. Experimental results show that the compound eye in this research has a field of view of 87°. In addition, images formed by multiple channels were found to be evenly distributed on the flat photoreceptor. Additionally, overlapping views of the adjacent channels allow higher resolution images to be re-constructed from multiple 3D images taken simultaneously.

Biologically inspired ultrathin arrayed camera for high-contrast and high-resolution imaging

“…Recently, the replica moulding of black silicone or silicon nanowires also provides optical isolation between microlenses; however, they have some structural restrictions in controlling the amount of incoming light through microlenses 11,26 . In addition, the complicated integration of optical elements still has some restrictions for either aligning the optical axis or improving the image resolution 27 .…”

Fabrication and Characterization of Curved Compound Eyes Based on Multifocal Microlenses

“…In particular, curved artificial compound eyes have generated more attention recently owing to their large field of view and low aberration or distortion. A variety of manufacturing methods have been proposed to fabricate curved artificial compound eyes, including but not limited to laser lithography technology [ 10 ], ultra-precision machining [ 11 , 12 ], hydrogel shrinkage [ 13 ], two-photon polymerization [ 14 ], bottom-up technology [ 15 , 16 ], thermal reflow of two different polymeric materials [ 17 ], and membrane deformation of polymers [ 18 ] assisted by differential air pressure [ 19 , 20 , 21 ] or bending ball [ 22 , 23 , 24 ]. While the fabrication of compound eyes has flourished, the application of components in the system has developed slowly due to a lack of proper detectors.…”

The Design and Positioning Method of a Flexible Zoom Artificial Compound Eye

“…By calibrating the position of each sub-eye in the three-dimensional model of the compound eye, the three-dimensional coordinates of a target point are obtained by solving the resulting over-determined equations using a least-squares method. The artificial compound eye was prepared by a molding process [ 20 , 21 ], and a compound eye imaging and positioning experiment was set up to test the imaging performance and target accuracy of the system.…”