Fabrication and characterization of PDMS microlenses based on elastomeric molding technology

Elastomeric molding technology is adopted to fabricate polydimethilsiloxane (PDMS)-based solid microlenses, as they can have different focal lengths and achieve different lens types (such as concave and convex) using the same mold structure. The only parameter that needs to be controlled is the pressure applied during the molding process. These PDMS lenses can also be transformed from the original spherical ones into microlenses having elliptic surface profiles simply by stretching their substrates in one direction. This provides the process with additional tunability of astigmatism.