Optical design of the Fresnel lens for LED-driven flashlight

The Fresnel lens is composed of micrometer-sized v-groove structures that determine the maximum illuminance and brightness uniformity of LED-driven flashlights, which are used in high-quality photography. The fabrication quality of the microstructures and the accuracy of the geometrical curvature of the Fresnel lens affect the optical characteristics of the emitted light traveling through the lens, which in turn determines the maximum illuminance and brightness uniformity. This paper presents a systematic design procedure for fabricating the Fresnel lens and investigates the influence of geometrical design and fabrication process on optical performance. The optical analysis was performed using the commercial software TracePro. The results revealed that a small tip radius of the v-groove microstructure facilitates brightness uniformity. Furthermore, both the simulation and the experimental results revealed that Fresnel lenses fabricated through injection molding or injection compression molding have either errors of microstructure height more than 3%-6% or curvature errors higher than 6%, which would affect the optical performance, especially the brightness uniformity.