Bio-inspired accommodating fluidic intraocular lens

The invention of intraocular lens (IOL), a substitute for crystalline lens, represents a major advancement in cataract surgery. After about sixty years of IOL development, one key remaining problem is its limited accommodation range compared with natural eyes. To overcome this performance limit, we explore bio-inspired fluidic IOL. By mimicking the working principle of natural eyes, a fluidic intraocular lens can achieve an exceedingly large accommodation range. An experiment on fluidic IOL demonstrated a very high tuning range of 12 D. This accommodation range was achieved with a modest amount of force (0.06 N) and equatorial radius change (0.286 mm), in conditions matching well with the characteristics of aged eyes. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America