High speed adaptive liquid microlens array

Liquid microlenses are attractive for adaptive optics because they offer the potential for both high speed actuation and parallelization into large arrays. Yet, in conventional designs, resonances of the liquid and the complexity of driving mechanisms and/or the device architecture have hampered a successful integration of both aspects. Here we present an array of up to 100 microlenses with synchronous modulation of the focal length at frequencies beyond 1 kHz using electrowetting. Our novel concept combines pinned contact lines at the edge of each microlens with an electrowetting controlled regulation of the pressure that actuates all microlenses in parallel. This design enables the development of various shapes of microlenses. The design presented here has potential applications in rapid parallel optical switches, artificial compound eye and three dimensional imaging. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America