A doublet microlens array for imaging micron-sized objects

We present a high-numerical aperture, doublet microlens array for imaging micron-sized objects. The proposed doublet architecture consists of glass microspheres trapped on a predefined array of silicon microholes and covered with a thin polymer layer. A standard silicon microfabrication process and a novel fluidic assembly technique were combined to obtain an array of 56 mu m diameter microlenses with a numerical aperture of similar to 0.5. Using such an array, we demonstrated brightfield and fluorescent image formation of objects directly on a CCD sensor without the use of intermediate lenses. The proposed technology is a significant advancement toward the unmet need of inexpensive, miniaturized optical modules which can be further integrated with lab-on-chip microfluidic devices and photonic chips for a variety of high-end imaging/detection applications.