Microlens arrays with adjustable aspect ratio fabricated by electrowetting and their application to correlated color...

We develop a facile, fast, and cost-effective method based on the electrowetting effect to fabricate concave microlens arrays (MLA) with a tunable height-to-radius ratio, namely aspect ratio (AR). The electric parameters including voltage and frequency are demonstrated to play an important role in the MLA forming process. With the optimized frequency of 5 Hz, the AR of MLA are tuned from 0.057 to 0.693 for an increasing voltage from 0 V to 180 V. The optical properties of the MLA, including their transmittance and light diffusion capability, are investigated by spectroscopic measurements and ray-tracing simulations. We show that the overall transmittance can be maintained above around 90% over the whole visible range, and that an AR exceeding 0.366 is required to sufficiently broaden the transmitted light angular distribution. These properties enable to apply the developed MLA films to correlated-color-temperature (CCT)-tunable light-emitting-diodes (LEDs) to enhance their angular color uniformity (ACU). Our results show that the ACU of CCT-tunable LEDs is significantly improved while preserving almost the same lumen output, and that the MLA with the highest AR exhibits the best ACU performance.