High-Quality Large-Magnification Polymer Lens from Needle Moving Technique and Thermal Assisted Moldless Fabrication Process

Amarit, Ratthasart; Kopwitthaya, Atcha; Pongsoon, P.; Jarujareet, Ungkarn; Chaitavon, Kosom; Porntheeraphat, Supanit; Sumriddetchkajorn, Sarun; Koanantakool, Thaweesak

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0146414

Cited by 17 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(18 reference statements)

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“…These methods have some common issues: 1) they are limited to simple, small-scale optics; 2) they are slow; and 3) they cannot control the freeform shape to meet design specifications. Although a moving needle method was developed to partially change the lens shape, it too cannot control the lens shape accurately 26 . A printing approach using a passive droplet dispenser has been investigated to fabricate a lens from optical silicone, but the reported method cannot control the lens shape either 27 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

IR-laser assisted additive freeform optics manufacturing

Hong

Liang

2017

Sci Rep

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Computer-controlled additive manufacturing (AM) processes, also known as three-dimensional (3D) printing, create 3D objects by the successive adding of a material or materials. While there have been tremendous developments in AM, the 3D printing of optics is lagging due to the limits in materials and tight requirements for optical applicaitons. We propose a new precision additive freeform optics manufacturing (AFOM) method using an pulsed infrared (IR) laser. Compared to ultraviolet (UV) curable materials, thermally curable optical silicones have a number of advantages, such as strong UV stability, non-yellowing, and high transmission, making it particularly suitable for optical applications. Pulsed IR laser radiation offers a distinct advantage in processing optical silicones, as the high peak intensity achieved in the focal region allows for curing the material quickly, while the brief duration of the laser-material interaction creates a negligible heat-affected zone.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

IR-laser assisted additive freeform optics manufacturing

Hong

Liang

2017

Sci Rep

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“…Currently, there are two popular ways to fabricate the lens with PDMS droplet on a substrate including the upright injection [26][27][28][29][30][31] and hanging method. [27,28] On the other hand, the hanging droplet method is performed by flipping the substrate that leads to the deformation of the liquid PDMS due to the gravitational force to form the lens shape. The extent of the magnification depends on the spreading of the liquid PDMS on the substrate, which is influenced by many parameters including the substrate material and temperature, polymer volume, viscosity, and surface tension.…”

Section: Pdms Lens Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These techniques rely on the deposition of liquid PDMS solution to a substrate and cure it to form the elastomeric lens. Currently, there are two popular ways to fabricate the lens with PDMS droplet on a substrate including the upright injection [26][27][28][29][30][31] and hanging method. [25,[32][33][34][35][36] In the injection method, the liquid PDMS is injected on top of a substrate and cured with a heating treatment.…”

Section: Pdms Lens Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[26] Furthermore, the modification of the needle pinching during the liquid PDMS injection is able to create an aspherical-shaped lens that produces less aberration. [27,28] On the other hand, the hanging droplet method is performed by flipping the substrate that leads to the deformation of the liquid PDMS due to the gravitational force to form the lens shape. However, this method is time consuming as it includes multiple drop-and-bake cycles.…”

Section: Pdms Lens Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Portable Smartphone‐Based Platform for Real‐Time Particle Detection in Microfluidics

Salafi

Zeming

Lim

et al. 2018

Adv Materials Technologies

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Real‐time particle detection is an integral part of microfluidics for diagnostics. The detection method is typically performed with the use of bulky and expensive instruments including a bench‐top microscope, high‐speed camera, and fluidic pump. This limits the practical applications of microfluidics for real‐time point‐of‐care detection. Here, a portable and low‐cost smartphone microscopy platform is developed for real‐time particle detection in microfluidics based on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) lens, modular 3D printed accessory, plug‐and‐play paper pump, and a novel particle counting algorithm. The PDMS lens is developed using a new method based on the PDMS precuring and hydrophobic modification on a pillar template to allow for fabrication of various lens shapes with high reproducibility and broad range magnification ratio from 30× to 100×. The modular 3D printed smartphone accessory allows for easy imaging setup to cater for different size of microchannel and the paper pump design provides a convenient single‐step process to drive the fluid. The platform is implemented to count the moving particles in the outlet of microfluidics deterministic lateral displacement with 94% counting accuracy. This platform provides huge potential applications for real‐time point‐of‐care detection that can be integrated with various microfluidic techniques.

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“…The second approach opens up ways to tailor high performance imaging without being limited to fixed parameter determined by manufacturers. A recent surge in a variety of moldless lens techniques [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] opened up new lens fabrication techniques on demand, which has been proven to be economical, efficient and repeatable. This has enabled the rapid decentralization of lens-fabrication and at the same time leverage upon consumer electronics to provide high resolution imaging devices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In situ retrieval and correction of aberrations in moldless lenses using Fourier ptychography

Kamal

Lee

2018

Opt. Express

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Liquid droplets cured at low temperatures or using ultraviolet light are primary approaches for fabricating refractive lenses without molds. Until now the performance of moldless lens fabrication process relied heavily on this step to precisely control the shape of each liquid droplet. Hence, a major hurdle in lenses fabricated from liquid droplets is the large variability of droplet shapes because they are sensitive to small amounts of interfacial forces. The shape of the final droplet critically affects the imaging performance of the lenses and cannot be reversed easily. Here, we aim to overcome this hurdle by performing in situ aberration correction using Fourier ptychography techniques. We demonstrate, for the first time, that computational optics can reverse high amounts of optical aberrations in moldless lenses and achieve high resolution imaging. In terms of imaging resolution, we successfully increased the resolving power of low powered moldless elastomer lenses by almost three-fold, from a numerical aperture of 0.035 to 0.099. The computational approach directly elucidates the spatially varying wavefront aberrations from each lens using the same imaging system. This provides direct feedback of droplet lens fabrication techniques without the need for advanced wavefront correction methods. The application of computational imaging onto moldless lenses, using consumer digital imaging systems, lends itself to the global efforts in decentralising high resolution image intensive scientific tools to the wider community.

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High-Quality Large-Magnification Polymer Lens from Needle Moving Technique and Thermal Assisted Moldless Fabrication Process

Cited by 17 publications

References 20 publications

IR-laser assisted additive freeform optics manufacturing

IR-laser assisted additive freeform optics manufacturing

Portable Smartphone‐Based Platform for Real‐Time Particle Detection in Microfluidics

In situ retrieval and correction of aberrations in moldless lenses using Fourier ptychography

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