Micropatterned single lens for wide-angle light-emitting diodes

This work presents a simple and effective method for a wide-angle light-emitting diode module by using a single lens corrugated with micropattern arrays. Impinged onto the micropattern arrays of a curved surface, light undergoes an enhancement of the illumination angle due to omnidirectional diffraction. A hemispherical dome lens with micropattern arrays is microfabricated by a reconfigurable microtemplating and a replica molding method. Depending on the micropattern size, the experimental and simulation results show the micropatterned single lens has the wide illumination angle as well as the high extraction efficiency of an incoming LED light source, compared with a conventional dome lens. (c) 2010 Optical Society of America