Fabrication of large-area cylindrical microlens array based on electric-field-driven jet printing

Hu, Yufei; Zhu, Xiaoyang; Li, Hongke; Qian, Lei; Yang, Jianjun; Lan, Hongbo

doi:10.1007/s00542-019-04478-0

Cited by 18 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Inkjet printing, as known as microdroplet jetting, can generate an array of UV-or thermo-curable droplets on a received substrate, resulting in a convex MLAs after curing. [87][88][89][90][91][92] Recently, with the optimizing of the precision nozzle system, inkjet printing method becomes a promising technique for fabricating MLAs on various materials.…”

Section: Inkjet Printing Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[4,9,12,[17][18][19][20][21] The characteristics of the compound eyes in nature and the advanced micro/nano-processing technologies provide great technical support and inspiration for the researchers to prepare artificial compound eyes (ACEs) with close-packed microlens arrays (MLAs) as optical imaging elements. [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Such MLAs compose of microscale lenses with the same surface feature and the regular arrangements are important microoptical components. The great light field (LF) regulation and focusing abilities of MLAs have made it essentially in various applications such as imaging, [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] dynamic target capture, [40][41][42] beaming homogenizing, [43][44][45][46] sensing, [47][48][49]…”

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confidence: 99%

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Bioinspired Artificial Compound Eyes: Characteristic, Fabrication, and Application

Yang

Bian

et al. 2021

Adv Materials Technologies

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the visual nerve perception. This type of eyes has ultrahigh resolution, which can get clear image information. Inspired by this imaging system, people have put significant efforts over a long time for development of camera-related optical system for various applications, such as endoscope, digital camera, smartphones, robot eyes, visual implants. [7][8][9][10] Because of the rapid progress in micro/nano technologies, the artificial eyes structures can achieve extremely high resolution that is close to or even exceeding the human eye. However, the low field of view (FOV) (the maximum value is only 90°) hinders its wider applications. To solve this problem, multiple cameras need to be put together to work, which not only increases the cost, but also makes the entire optical system cumbersome. Hence, an optical device with portable, integrated, and large FOV features is highly desired.Different from the single-lens eyes, the insect eyes adopt another visual system. Figure 1b shows a honeybee's apposition compound eye, which has thousands of ommatidia arranged on a curved surface so that each ommatidium points in different directions. [11] Each unit consists of a lens, a crystalline cone, and a rhabdom. The focused light signal is transmitted to the photosensitive area by the crystalline cone, and then visual perception is generated after passing through the rhabdom. Each of the ommatidium can image which enables the insects to obtain sufficient information in a complex environment and exhibits the characteristics of large FOV, low aberration, and high sensitivity to moving objects. [12] In addition to the honeybee's compound eyes, the eyes of other insects in nature, such as mosquito eye, [13] fly's eye, [14] moth's eye, [15] and dragonfly's eye [16] also have similar structure and have attracted much attention due to the deep research on bionics. [4,9,12,[17][18][19][20][21] The characteristics of the compound eyes in nature and the advanced micro/nano-processing technologies provide great technical support and inspiration for the researchers to prepare artificial compound eyes (ACEs) with close-packed microlens arrays (MLAs) as optical imaging elements. [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Such MLAs compose of microscale lenses with the same surface feature and the regular arrangements are important microoptical components. The great light field (LF) regulation and focusing abilities of MLAs have made it essentially in various applications such as imaging, [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] dynamic target capture, [40][41][42] beaming homogenizing, [43][44][45][46] sensing, [47][48][49] light extractionThe natural compound eyes provide great inspiration for design of advanced imaging devices. Artificial compound eyes (ACEs) with close-packed microlens arrays (MLAs) have attracted enormous research interests due to their remarkable advantages in modern micro-optical systems, such as miniaturization, high integration, tunable focal length, large field of view, and moving objects tracking. Over a decade of intens...

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Section: Inkjet Printing Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioinspired Artificial Compound Eyes: Characteristic, Fabrication, and Application

Yang

Bian

et al. 2021

Adv Materials Technologies

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“…The cylindrical MLA has developed rapidly in recent years. Commonly used processes include thermal reflow (de Jesus Maciel, Rocha, Carmo, & Correia, 2014), extrusion printing (Hu et al, 2019; Xing et al, 2016), carbon dioxide laser assisted shaping (Choi et al, 2015; Friend et al, 2013), and femtosecond laser direct writing (Luo et al, 2016). Luo et al (Luo, Duan, & Guo, 2017) prepared high‐quality cylindrical microlenses by using spatial shaping based on the distribution of femtosecond laser beams from Gauss to Bessel, demonstrating excellent optical imaging performance.…”

Section: Microlenses Fabricating Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microlenses arrays: Fabrication, materials, and applications

Cai

Sun

Chu

et al. 2021

Microscopy Res & Technique

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Microlenses have become an indispensable optical element in many optical systems. The advancement of technology has led to a wider variety of microlenses fabrication methods, but these methods suffer from, more or less, some limitations. In this article, we review the manufacturing technology of microlenses from the direct and indirect perspectives. First, we present several fabrication methods and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Then, we discuss the commonly used materials for fabricating microlenses and the applications of microlenses in various fields. Finally, we point out the prospects for the future development of microlenses and their fabrication methods.

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“…In particular, MLAs with good converging performance, great uniformity of focusing and good repeatability of geometry parameters in large-scale is of great important for the prototype and industrialization of integral image 3D display. A variety of fabrication strategies have been developed including screen printing 21 , gray-scale photolithography 22 , photo-resist reflow method 23 – 25 , two-photon polymerization 26 , 27 , nano-imprinting 28 and ink-jet printing 29 , 30 , etc. Among the above methods, screen printing has been proved to be an efficient fabrication method of large-scale and high-performance MLAs for integral imaging 3D display 21 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-scale microlens arrays on flexible substrate with improved numerical aperture for curved integral imaging 3D display

Wang

Chen

Weng

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Curved integral imaging 3D display could provide enhanced 3D sense of immersion and wider viewing angle, and is gaining increasing interest among discerning users. In this work, large scale microlens arrays (MLAs) on flexible PMMA substrate were achieved based on screen printing method. Meanwhile, an inverted reflowing configuration as well as optimization of UV resin's viscosity and substrate's surface wettability were implemented to improved the numerical aperture (NA) of microlenses. The results showed that the NA values of MLAs could be increased effectively by adopting inverted reflowing manner with appropriate reflowing time. With decreasing the substrate's wettability, the NA values could be increased from 0.036 to 0.096, when the UV resin contact angles increased from 60.1° to 88.7°. For demonstration, the fabricated MLAs was combined to a curved 2D monitor to realize a 31-inch curved integral imaging 3D display system, exhibiting wider viewing angle than flat integral imaging 3D display system. Display technology will develop in the direction of more natural vision and more user-friendly. In the past two decades, considerable attention has been paid to extend the classical two-dimensional (2D) displays into their three-dimensional (3D) counterparts because of its stronger sense of reality 1-4. Another important research stream is flexible display, which has thin, lightweight and non-breakable characteristics. Displays with flexible form factors enable the fabrication of displays on curvilinear surfaces and allow their shapes to be transformed, providing potential applications to mobile, wearable and vehicle display. Therefore, flexible 3D displays become a major technological and application goal in the field of next-generation displays. Integral imaging is an autostereoscopic and multiscopic 3D display technology that uses double micro-lens arrays (MLAs) to capture and reproduce a light field of the target based on reversibility principle of light rays 5. It is regarded as a promising approach to realize the 3D display system due to its typical characteristics, such as glasses free, full parallax, quasi-continuous view points, eliminating visual fatigue and real 3D display. In particular, it produces real concentrations of light to optically produce 3D images that are observed without decoupling the convergence and the accommodation, avoiding the detrimental effects of the convergence-accommodation conflict. Thus, there has been substantially increasing interest in researching and implementing effective technologies for the capture, processing, and display of 3D images 6-8. It is also inferred that flexible integral imaging 3D displays could be achieved via the combination of flexible 2D display panel and flexible MLAs 9-11. MLAs have been widely used as key components in lots of optical systems 12-14 , such as integral imaging 15,16 , optical communications 17 , digital display 18 , detection 19 and far field imaging 20. In particular, MLAs with good converging performance, great uniformity of focusing...

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Fabrication of large-area cylindrical microlens array based on electric-field-driven jet printing

Cited by 18 publications

References 32 publications

Bioinspired Artificial Compound Eyes: Characteristic, Fabrication, and Application

Bioinspired Artificial Compound Eyes: Characteristic, Fabrication, and Application

Microlenses arrays: Fabrication, materials, and applications

Large-scale microlens arrays on flexible substrate with improved numerical aperture for curved integral imaging 3D display

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