Flexible meniscus/biconvex lens system with fluidic-controlled tunable-focus applications

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Fluidic Systems Engineering
• Materials Science

Background:

• Tunable spherical lenses using fluid injection often suffer from spherical aberration.
• Existing fluidic lens designs present challenges in controlling optical quality and minimizing distortion.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel fluidic-controlled meniscus/biconvex lens system.
• To demonstrate a tunable lens with reduced optical distortion and spherical aberration.
• To characterize lens performance based on fabrication and processing parameters.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a novel fluidic-controlled meniscus/biconvex lens system.
• Characterization of manufactured lenses under varying processing parameters.
• Optical performance analysis using ZEMAX, including distortion and relative illumination measurements.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated a tunable focal length change of five times (19.1-80.8 cm) with applied pressure (0-5 kPa).
• Observed a quadratic relationship between focal length and applied pressure.
• Achieved less than 5% distortion and relative illumination above 0.74 for the prototype lens.

Conclusions:

• The novel fluidic-controlled lens system effectively addresses spherical aberration issues.
• The system offers significant tunability in focal length with low distortion.
• This technology holds promise for advanced optical applications requiring adaptive focusing.