Flexible Electrowetting-on-Dielectric Microlens Array Sheet

Grinsven, Kari L. Van; Ashtiani, Alireza Ousati; Jiang, Hongrui

doi:10.3390/mi10070464

Cited by 21 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…The diameter of the lens was 1 mm, and the focal length ranged from 9.2 to 20.2 mm. The field-of-view of the tunable MLAs could reach 40.4° . These results prove the application potential of tunable MLAs.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 57%

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In Situ Electrohydrodynamic Jet Printing-Based Fabrication of Tunable Microlens Arrays

Zhong

Zhou

et al. 2021

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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Tunable microlens arrays (MLAs) with controllable focal lengths have been extensively used in optical sensors, biochips, and electronic devices. The commonly used method is electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) that controls the contact angle of the microlens to adjust the focal length. However, the fabrication of tunable MLAs at the microscale remains a challenge because the size of MLAs is limited by the external electrodes of EWOD. In this study, a highly integrated planar annular microelectrode array was proposed to achieve an electrowetting tunable MLA. The planar microelectrode was fabricated by electrohydrodynamic jet (E-jet) printing and the liquid microlens was then deposited in situ on the microelectrode. This method could realize 36 tunable liquid microlenses with an average diameter of 24 μm in a 320 × 320 μm 2 plane. The fabricated tunable MLAs with higher integration levels and smaller sizes can be beneficial for cell imaging, optofluidic systems, and microfluidic chips.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 57%

“…The field-of-view of the tunable MLAs could reach 40.4°. 33 These results prove the application potential of tunable MLAs. Nonetheless, the common, tunable MLAs based on EWOD mainly rely on external electrodes such as needle, cylindrical, and parallel electrodes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 56%

In Situ Electrohydrodynamic Jet Printing-Based Fabrication of Tunable Microlens Arrays

Zhong

Zhou

et al. 2021

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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“…Also, liquid microlenses can be reshaped through various external stimuli. For example, electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) has been widely applied to change the contact angle of individual microlens to adjust the focal length of the MLAs. − Besides, another strategy based on the surface modification of substrate to change liquid contact angles and microlens’ focal length is also reported . Although these methods can achieve tunable liquid MLAs, the liquids are limited to conductive and photosensitive materials, and the tuning process is also complicated and time-consuming.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tunable and Dynamic Optofluidic Microlens Arrays Based on Droplets

Shi

et al. 2022

Anal. Chem.

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Microlens arrays (MLAs) are acquiring a key role in the micro-optical system, which have been widely applied in the fields of imaging processing, light extraction, biochemical sensing, and display technology. Compared with solid MLAs, liquid MLAs have received extensive attention due to their natural smooth interface and adjustability. However, manufacturing tunable liquid MLAs with ideal structures is still a key challenge for current technologies. In this paper, a novel and simple optofluidic method is demonstrated, enabling the tunable focusing and high-quality imaging of liquid MLAs. Tunable droplets are fabricated and self-assembled into arrays as the MLAs, which can be easily adjusted to focus, form images, and display different focal lengths. Tuning of MLAs’ focusing properties (range from 550 to 5370 μm) is demonstrated by changing the refractive index (RI) of the droplets with a fixed size of 200 μm, which can be changed by adjusting the flow rates of the two branch streams. Also, the corresponding numerical apertures of the MLAs range from 0.026 to 0.26. Furthermore, the MLAs’ functionality for microparticle imaging applications is also illustrated. Combining the MLAs with a 4× objective, microparticle imaging is magnified two times, and the resolution has also been improved on the original basis. Besides, both the size and RI of the MLAs in an optofluidic chip can be further adjusted to detect samples at different positions. These MLAs have the merits of high optical performance, a simple fabrication procedure, easy integration, and good tunability. Thus, it shows promising opportunities for many applications, such as adaptive imaging and sensing.

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“…In the case of a membrane, the membrane may be used between liquid and air, or between two different liquids. While liquid lenses without a membrane generally rely upon electromagnetic or thermal properties of the liquids themselves in order to actuate the lens [8,9,10,11,12,13,14], liquid lenses formed with the addition of a simple membrane can be actuated through a much wider range of mechanisms. Thanks to the near-incompressibility of liquids, these lenses can utilize a variety of different actuators, including pneumatic [15,16,17,18,19], electrowetting [20,21,22,23,24], magnetic/electromagnetic [25,26], piezoelectric [27,28,29,30,31,32], electrostatic [33], dielectrophoretic [11,34], or any other actuator that can be coupled to a sealed liquid chamber to provide focus tuning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lorentz Force Actuated Tunable-Focus Liquid Lens

2019

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Tunable-focus liquid lenses provide focal length tuning for optical systems, e.g., cameras, where physical movement of rigid lenses are not an option or not preferable. In this work we present a magnetically actuated liquid lens utilizing the Lorentz force to vary the focal length as the current through the system is varied. The resulting lens can operate as both a diverging and a converging lens depending on the direction of current applied and has a large range of focal lengths, from −305 mm to –111 mm and from 272 mm to 146 mm. We also characterized the aberrations of the lens during the actuation with a Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor, and utilized the lens for imaging, during which we measured a resolution of 7.13 lp/mm.

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Flexible Electrowetting-on-Dielectric Microlens Array Sheet

Cited by 21 publications

References 34 publications

In Situ Electrohydrodynamic Jet Printing-Based Fabrication of Tunable Microlens Arrays

In Situ Electrohydrodynamic Jet Printing-Based Fabrication of Tunable Microlens Arrays

Tunable and Dynamic Optofluidic Microlens Arrays Based on Droplets

Lorentz Force Actuated Tunable-Focus Liquid Lens

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