Fabrication of a light screen-aperture integrated flexible thin film micro-lens array for a biomimetic superposition compound eye

Abstract

Micro-lens array, an artificial compound eye vision system, provides a wide field of view and multi-perspective view. However, it has not been adopted as a computer vision application due to its limited visible range and high optical interference. In this research, a novel fabrication method for the flexible polydimethylsiloxane micro-lens array with a polytetrafluoroethylene light screen-aperture integrated layer was established by the simple protrusion method. The integrated layer provided longer visible range by one meter while maintaining the wide field-of-view of 100 °. The resulting images were used for obtaining depth information of a target as an example and for analyzing the rectangular and hexagonal arrangements of the micro-lenses for the future applications. With the improved visual range, wide field-of-view and flexibility, the fabricated micro-lens array can be applied to the small and curved CMOS image sensors in the future.