Expand this Topic clickable element to expand a topic
Skip to content
Optica Publishing Group

Design and fabrication of a freeform microlens array for a compact large-field-of-view compound-eye camera

Not Accessible

Your library or personal account may give you access

Abstract

In this research, a unique freeform microlens array was designed and fabricated for a compact compound-eye camera to achieve a large field of view. This microlens array has a field of view of 48°×48°, with a thickness of only 1.6 mm. The freeform microlens array resides on a flat substrate, and thus can be directly mounted to a commercial 2D image sensor. Freeform surfaces were used to design the microlens profiles, thus allowing the microlenses to steer and focus incident rays simultaneously. The profiles of the freeform microlenses were represented using extended polynomials, the coefficients of which were optimized using ZEMAX. To reduce crosstalk among neighboring channels, a micro aperture array was machined using high-speed micromilling. The molded microlens array was assembled with the micro aperture array, an adjustable fixture, and a board-level image sensor to form a compact compound-eye camera system. The imaging tests using the compound-eye camera showed that the unique freeform microlens array was capable of forming proper images, as suggested by design. The measured field of view of ±23.5° also matches the initial design and is considerably larger compared with most similar camera designs using conventional microlens arrays. To achieve low manufacturing cost without sacrificing image quality, the freeform microlens array was fabricated using a combination of ultraprecision diamond broaching and a microinjection molding process.

©2012 Optical Society of America

Full Article  |  PDF Article
More Like This
Development of a low cost high precision three-layer 3D artificial compound eye

Hao Zhang, Lei Li, David L. McCray, Sebastian Scheiding, Neil J. Naples, Andreas Gebhardt, Stefan Risse, Ramona Eberhardt, Andreas Tünnermann, and Allen Y. Yi
Opt. Express 21(19) 22232-22245 (2013)

Development of a 3D artificial compound eye

Lei Li and Allen Y. Yi
Opt. Express 18(17) 18125-18137 (2010)

Design, fabrication, and testing of a Shack–Hartmann sensor with an automatic registration feature

Wenchen Zhou, Thomas W. Raasch, and Allen Y. Yi
Appl. Opt. 55(28) 7892-7899 (2016)

Cited By

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Figures (13)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Figure files are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Tables (2)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article tables are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Equations (2)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Equations are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Select as filters


Select Topics Cancel
© Copyright 2024 | Optica Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved