Journal
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
Volume 11, Issue 43, Pages 40662-40668Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b14692
Keywords
microlens array; digital light processing; oscillation; optical surface roughness; grayscale
Funding
- SUTD Digital Manufacturing and Design Centre (DManD) - Singapore National Research Foundation [RGDM1830206]
- Shenzhen municipal government [Y01336121]
- Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) [Y01336221]
- Centers for Mechanical Engineering Research and Education at MIT
- SUSTech
Ask authors/readers for more resources
A microlens array has become an important micro-optics device in various applications. Compared with traditional manufacturing approaches, digital light processing (DLP)-based printing enables fabrication of complex three-dimensional (3D) geometries and is a possible manufacturing approach for microlens arrays. However, the nature of 3D printing objects by stacking successive 2D patterns formed by discrete pixels leads to coarse surface roughness and makes DLP-based printing unsuccessful in fabricating optical components. Here, we report an oscillation-assisted DLP-based printing approach for fabrication of microlens arrays. An optically smooth surface (about 1 nm surface roughness) is achieved by mechanical oscillation that eliminates the jagged surface formed by discrete pixels, and a 1-3 s single grayscale ultraviolet (UV) exposure that removes the staircase effect. Moreover, computationally designed grayscale UV patterns allow us to fabricate microlenses with various profiles. The proposed approach paves a way to 3D print optical components with high quality, fast speed, and vast flexibility.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available