WO2002010805A1 - Microlens arrays having high focusing efficiency - Google Patents
Microlens arrays having high focusing efficiency Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- WO2002010805A1 WO2002010805A1 PCT/US2001/041475 US0141475W WO0210805A1 WO 2002010805 A1 WO2002010805 A1 WO 2002010805A1 US 0141475 W US0141475 W US 0141475W WO 0210805 A1 WO0210805 A1 WO 0210805A1
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- WO
- WIPO (PCT)
- Prior art keywords
- microlens array
- array
- microlenses
- plane
- master
- Prior art date
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- 238000003491 array Methods 0.000 title abstract description 30
- 229920002120 photoresistant polymer Polymers 0.000 claims abstract description 20
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 claims description 47
- 238000004519 manufacturing process Methods 0.000 claims description 20
- 230000008569 process Effects 0.000 description 16
- 230000010076 replication Effects 0.000 description 13
- 239000000758 substrate Substances 0.000 description 10
- 230000000694 effects Effects 0.000 description 8
- 238000011161 development Methods 0.000 description 5
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- 230000006870 function Effects 0.000 description 4
- 239000011521 glass Substances 0.000 description 4
- 230000003993 interaction Effects 0.000 description 3
- 239000000463 material Substances 0.000 description 3
- 230000003287 optical effect Effects 0.000 description 3
- 238000012856 packing Methods 0.000 description 3
- 230000007480 spreading Effects 0.000 description 3
- 238000003892 spreading Methods 0.000 description 3
- 230000000295 complement effect Effects 0.000 description 2
- 230000008878 coupling Effects 0.000 description 2
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- 239000011347 resin Substances 0.000 description 2
- 229920005989 resin Polymers 0.000 description 2
- 239000000126 substance Substances 0.000 description 2
- 230000000996 additive effect Effects 0.000 description 1
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Classifications
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B3/00—Simple or compound lenses
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B3/00—Simple or compound lenses
- G02B3/0006—Arrays
- G02B3/0012—Arrays characterised by the manufacturing method
- G02B3/0031—Replication or moulding, e.g. hot embossing, UV-casting, injection moulding
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B3/00—Simple or compound lenses
- G02B3/0006—Arrays
- G02B3/0037—Arrays characterized by the distribution or form of lenses
- G02B3/0043—Inhomogeneous or irregular arrays, e.g. varying shape, size, height
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B3/00—Simple or compound lenses
- G02B3/0006—Arrays
- G02B3/0037—Arrays characterized by the distribution or form of lenses
- G02B3/0056—Arrays characterized by the distribution or form of lenses arranged along two different directions in a plane, e.g. honeycomb arrangement of lenses
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L27/00—Devices consisting of a plurality of semiconductor or other solid-state components formed in or on a common substrate
- H01L27/14—Devices consisting of a plurality of semiconductor or other solid-state components formed in or on a common substrate including semiconductor components sensitive to infrared radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength or corpuscular radiation and specially adapted either for the conversion of the energy of such radiation into electrical energy or for the control of electrical energy by such radiation
- H01L27/144—Devices controlled by radiation
- H01L27/146—Imager structures
- H01L27/14601—Structural or functional details thereof
- H01L27/14625—Optical elements or arrangements associated with the device
- H01L27/14627—Microlenses
Definitions
- the present invention relates to arrays of microlenses having high focusing efficiencies. It also relates to methods for fabricating such arrays.
- the invention is applicable to the efficient focusing of laser light into optical fibers, light diffusion, and controlled scattering of coherent or incoherent light for projection and transmissive displays, among other applications.
- a “microlens array” is an array of microlenses and an associated array of unit cells, with one microlens being associated with each unit cell.
- the microlenses of the present invention can have any desired configuration and can be formed on, for example, a supporting "piston" of the type disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Patent Application No. 60/222,033 which was filed on July 31, 2000 in the names of G. Michael Morris and Tasso R. M. Sales and is entitled “Structured Screens for Controlled Spreading of Light,” the content of which in its entirety is incorporated herein by reference.
- microlens means any microstructure which is capable of focusing light.
- the "fill factor" of a microlens array is the ratio of the sum of the areas within the unit cells occupied by microlenses to the sum of the areas of the unit cells.
- the "focusing efficiency" of a microlens array is the sum of the measured light intensities at the focal points of the microlenses divided by the sum of the light intensities impinging on the unit cells of the array for an array illuminated along its optical axis by a collimated, substantially spatially incoherent light source, e.g., a collimated white light source. As will be recognized by those skilled in the art, this is a "Strehl-type" definition of focusing efficiency.
- concave microlenses will typically have virtual focal points (e.g., a plano-concave microlens in air will have a negative power and thus a virtual focal point for collimated light), an auxiliary optical system needs to be used in such cases to produce real focal points whose intensities can be measured. To at least some extent, the auxihary optical system will reduce the intensities at the real focal points, and those reductions should be taken into account in determining the intensity values for the virtual focal points. In the case of anamorphic microlenses, the light intensities at each of the focal points of the microlens are included in the sum of the measured light intensities.
- Microlenses are required in many applications, such as light coupling from lasers to fibers, either as single lenses or in array form whereby several beams are focused to several fibers. Other important applications include light diffusion and screens.
- the lens profile (or sag function) must be fabricated with accuracy typically equal to or better than, for example, ⁇ /4, where ⁇ is the wavelength of the illumination source.
- microlenses utilize the entire surface for focusing. In this way, essentially all incident light can be controlled by the array.
- the array is said to possess a 100% fill factor.
- Close packing of microlenses implies a fill factor equal to 100%, which means that the internal boundaries between neighboring microlenses are in close contact.
- a simple example of close packing is a hexagonal array. Other arrangements, such as square arrays, can also be close packed. It is typical to find in both the scientific and patent literature arrays of microlenses that have fill factors below 100%.
- FIG. 1 illustrates such an array where microlenses 12 are regularly placed on the available substrate area 11 with spaces being left between the individual microlenses.
- One of the unit cells of the array of FIG. 1 is shown by dashed lines 13. The fill factor for this array is only 44%.
- Patent No. 5,324,623 are based on volume relaxation and thus cannot control the fusing of material at the internal boundaries between microlenses. With fusion there is distortion that reduces focusing capabilities. Thermal deformation methods are simple to implement but allow limited control of the individual microlens structures.
- Patent No. 5,867,321 cannot provide a 100% fill factor, with the region between two neighboring microlenses being typically 20% of the microlens repetition spacing.
- Gradient-index arrays present a serious limitation for large-volume fabrication due to the intrinsically slow diffusion process.
- the present invention addresses the difficulties associated with the prior art by providing methods for fabricating microlens arrays having high focusing efficiencies through accurate microlens fabrication at high fill factors.
- the array can be arranged in any arbitrary way, such as square, hexagonal, or random.
- the methods allow the fabrication of microlenses of arbitrary shape as well as variable focusing power for different directions (anamorphic lenses).
- the objects of the invention include at least some and preferably all of the following:
- the invention provides a fabrication method for producing an array of convex microlenses wherein direct laser writing is used to produce an initial master (initial mold) in a positive photoresist wherein the surface configuration of the initial master is the negative (complement) of the desired array of convex microlenses. That is, the initial master has a concave, instead of a convex, surface configuration.
- the problems caused by the finite size of a laser beam and the convolution of such a beam with the desired profile(s) of convex microlenses are overcome. By overcoming these problems, convex microlens arrays having high focusing efficiencies are achieved.
- a high focusing efficiency for an array of microlenses depends on two factors: (1) a high fill factor, and (2) accurate reproduction of the desired lens profiles. Both factors are necessary and neither factor alone is sufficient.
- a high fill factor can be achieved by a process that alters all parts of a resist film, but if the alterations do not correspond to the desired lens profiles, the focusing efficiency of the array will still suffer since the parts of the resist film that have the inaccurate profiles will not focus incident light properly.
- accurate reproduction of a desired lens profile with the individual microlenses spaced far apart also results in low foc ising efficiency, in this case as a result of light passing through the spaces between microlenses.
- the invention is practiced by using a substrate typically made of glass to support a first medium to generate an initial master (initial mold), which is later used to accurately replicate the desired microlens array in a cost-effective fashion. More particularly, a photosensitive positive resist film is deposited on the substrate to an appropriate thickness consistent with the desired thickness for the final microlens array.
- the positive resist is preferably of the low- contrast kind such that, when exposed to light, a smoothly varying surface- relief profile can be produced.
- the positive resist After being deposited on the substrate, the positive resist is exposed to a laser beam having a well-characterized profile. With a pre-defined sampling rate, the area of the resist film of interest is exposed to the laser beam. By varying the intensity of the beam, the complement of the shape of each microlens in the array is encoded in the resist. In particular, the laser exposure produces a latent image in the photosensitive film by modifying its physical and chemical properties. Next, the film is developed to produce a surface-relief structure. For a resist film of the positive kind, development removes the exposed area leaving the unexposed regions.
- the above combinations of surface -relief structure and photoresist type for the initial master are critical aspects of the invention since only through the indicated combinations can high focusing efficiencies be achieved through high fill factors and minimized convolution effects of a finite laser beam.
- the concave surface- relief structure can be used to prepare an intermediate master
- the intermediate mold which is of convex form.
- the intermediate master can then be replicated once more to provide a final master (final mold), now in concave form.
- Final mold Large-volume replication is then possible with the final concave master so that the final array has a convex form and provides a high fill factor and a high focusing efficiency.
- the array need not be limited to regularly periodic arrangements, such as square or hexagonal arrays, but may assume any general arbitrary form, as dictated by the requirements of the design.
- the lens shape need not be the same and can, in fact, vary for every microlens in the array.
- the techniques of the present invention can be used to produce the configurations and distributions of microstructures set forth in the above-referenced, commonly assigned U.S. Patent Application entitled "Structured Screens for Controlled Spreading of Light.”
- tops of the concavities of the concave surface-relief structure formed in the positive resist film are preferably aligned or vary slowly for any neighboring elements. If this guideline is not satisfied, accurate profiles may only be produced over a portion of the array, reducing both the fill factor and the focusing efficiency of the array.
- FIG. 1 is a top view of a lens array with a fill factor less than 100%.
- FIG. 2 shows a glass substrate with a photosensitive film deposited on its surface.
- FIG. 3 shows the scanning of a laser beam over a photosensitive film creating a region of distinct chemical properties (latent image).
- FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B show the effect of convolution in the fabrication of convex structures.
- FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B illustrate the interaction of a hard fabrication tool in relation to a convex and concave array, respectively.
- FIG. 6 illustrates a technique for estimating the focusing efficiency of the microlens units of an array fabricated in convex form.
- FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B show experimental plots of identical microlens profiles fabricated in convex and concave forms, respectively.
- FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 illustrate surface-relief structures having concave cavities formed in a positive photoresist where the edge boundaries of the cavities are aligned with the top surface of the photoresist.
- FIG. 10A, FIG. 10B, and FIG. IOC iUustrate the replication of an initial mold having concave cavities to obtain a final array of convex microlenses.
- FIG. 2 shows a photosensitive resist film 21 of low contrast deposited on a substrate 22 which is typically made of glass.
- the thickness of the film should be equal to or larger than the total depth span defined by the lens array.
- the resist may require preliminary processing such as hardening.
- a laser beam is focused at the resist film and scanned along the surface so as to expose the whole resist surface, as indicated in FIG. 3.
- the intensity of the laser beam varies for every point in such a fashion that a latent image of the negative of the desired convex microlenses is imprinted in the resist in the form of a chemical transformation of the resist material.
- the chemically modified resist film undergoes a development process, which consists of exposure to a solution of, for example, a standard alkali developer for a period of time that varies with the total thickness of the array. Deeper arrays require longer development times.
- the development process removes the exposed areas, leaving the unexposed areas.
- each microlens in the array needs to be produced in the positive photoresist in concave form. Only in this way is it possible to reduce significantly the rounding effect observed when microlenses are fabricated in convex form. This is so because the fabrication process itself introduces features into a surface- relief profile that are undesirable.
- the relief structures obtained by exposure of a resist film are generally described as the convolution of the desired surface function with the laser beam function.
- the operation of convolution can be mathematically described by the following relation:
- Eq. (1) represents the mathematical function describing the desired surface relief
- g represents the mathematical form of the writing laser beam
- S represents the fabricated surface area
- (x,y) denotes a point on the surface of the photosensitive film
- F represents the final surface shape.
- the laser-writing process when used to make concave surface-relief structures not only achieves the advantage of mechanical ruling devices for concave structures but also offers significant capabilities that go beyond those of mechanical ruhng methods.
- the size of the mechanical tool itself determines the extent of the boundary region between neighboring microlenses. With laser writing, this region can be arbitrarily reduced.
- the ability to preserve a concave surface-relief shape from the apex of the structure to its very edge at the boundary of a neighboring concavity allows for the fabrication of arrays of convex microlenses of high focusing efficiency.
- FIG. 6 This deficiency of producing an array in convex form, whether by means of a mechanical or a laser tool, is illustrated in FIG. 6.
- the desired microlens shape is represented by curve 61 with an area available for focusing represented by the parameter A.
- the actual microlens shape turns out be that given by curve 62 and the area available for focusing now being represented by the parameter B.
- the observed rounding effect at the boundaries of the microlenses diverts the incident illumination to locations other than the focal point of the microlens. Therefore, only area B becomes available for focusing. In this way, the estimated focusing efficiency of the microlens ⁇ can be written as
- FIG. 7A shows the case of an array of microlenses with diameter equal to 50 ⁇ m fabricated in convex mode.
- the boundaries between microlenses are clearly rounded and cannot be efficiently used for focusing.
- the estimated efficiency for each microlens in this array is 50%.
- FIG. 7B shows that the boundaries are preserved.
- This array is estimated to be 100% efficient in focusing.
- the concave surface-relief structure can be fully packed without losing efficiency. Direct writing of a convex array cannot achieve such packing without loss of efficiency.
- the concavities of the concave surface-relief structure formed in the positive photoresist should have their extremities aligned with the surface of the resist as indicated in FIG. 8. Any variations from the desirable ahgnment should be slow enough so as to avoid excessive rounding of the ultimate microlenses that would lead to low transmission efficiency.
- the analogy between the mechanical ruling and the laser writing starts to fail when neighboring concavities present a relative vertical offset, such as, the "piston" of the above-referenced, commonly assigned patent application entitled “Structured Screens for Controlled Spreading of Light.”
- the reduced efficiency might be acceptable. In other cases, the loss in focusing efficiency is intolerable.
- the requirement of alignment between the top of the concavities of the concave surface -relief structure is fully compatible with the requirement of some arrays that the focusing properties of the individual microlenses vary randomly. In this case, the vertices of the concavities do not align, only their tops.
- a similar principle applies for two dimensional arrays.
- the surface-relief structure obtained with the laser exposure provides a first mold that can be used for replication. If the material that constitutes the photosensitive film is suitable for replication, than replicas of that master can be readily fabricated in convex form. If concave replicas are required, an intermediate replication step is necessary whereby a convex tool is formed, which is ready to produce concave arrays.
- the photosensitive film is not suitable for many replications and, as a result, molds are preferably made of, for example, stronger plastic resins.
- FIG. 10A shows the initial surface-relief structure 101 in concave form with the tops aligned.
- the substrate e.g., glass substrate
- FIG. 10B shows another substrate 103 on which a plastic resin 104 has been deposited. This resin will be one more suitable than a photoresist for use or as an intermediate replication tool.
- FIG. 10C shows the result of replication of the intermediate replication tool of FIG. 10B to generate the desired array of convex microlenses 105.
- Sequences similar to that shown in FIG. 10 can be used to make high efficiency, high fill factor arrays of concave microlenses with again the initial surface-relief structure being formed in a positive photoresist in concave form.
Abstract
Description
Claims
Priority Applications (3)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
AU2001283514A AU2001283514A1 (en) | 2000-07-31 | 2001-07-30 | Microlens arrays having high focusing efficiency |
EP01962321A EP1218777A4 (en) | 2000-07-31 | 2001-07-30 | Microlens arrays having high focusing efficiency |
JP2002515480A JP2004505307A (en) | 2000-07-31 | 2001-07-30 | Micro lens array with high light collection efficiency |
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
US22203200P | 2000-07-31 | 2000-07-31 | |
US60/222,032 | 2000-07-31 |
Publications (1)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
WO2002010805A1 true WO2002010805A1 (en) | 2002-02-07 |
Family
ID=22830476
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/US2001/041475 WO2002010805A1 (en) | 2000-07-31 | 2001-07-30 | Microlens arrays having high focusing efficiency |
Country Status (7)
Country | Link |
---|---|
EP (1) | EP1218777A4 (en) |
JP (1) | JP2004505307A (en) |
KR (1) | KR100878966B1 (en) |
CN (1) | CN1200304C (en) |
AU (1) | AU2001283514A1 (en) |
TW (2) | TWI238266B (en) |
WO (1) | WO2002010805A1 (en) |
Cited By (1)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US7241559B2 (en) | 2002-10-04 | 2007-07-10 | Corning Incorporated | Lens array and method for fabricating the lens array |
Families Citing this family (3)
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---|---|---|---|---|
US6042421A (en) * | 1994-12-12 | 2000-03-28 | Itt Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc. | Coaxial connector |
US7098589B2 (en) | 2003-04-15 | 2006-08-29 | Luminus Devices, Inc. | Light emitting devices with high light collimation |
TWI526720B (en) | 2013-06-21 | 2016-03-21 | 佳能股份有限公司 | Diffusing plate |
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JPS5483846A (en) * | 1977-12-16 | 1979-07-04 | Canon Inc | Diffusing plate |
US4372649A (en) * | 1978-05-22 | 1983-02-08 | Minnesota Mining And Manufacturing Company | Extended area diffractive subtractive color filters |
JPH03122614A (en) * | 1989-10-05 | 1991-05-24 | Matsushita Electric Ind Co Ltd | Production of microlens |
JPH03214101A (en) * | 1990-01-18 | 1991-09-19 | Nippon Sheet Glass Co Ltd | Closed packed lens array |
US5119235A (en) * | 1989-12-21 | 1992-06-02 | Nikon Corporation | Focusing screen and method of manufacturing same |
US5148322A (en) * | 1989-11-09 | 1992-09-15 | Omron Tateisi Electronics Co. | Micro aspherical lens and fabricating method therefor and optical device |
JPH06160606A (en) * | 1992-11-17 | 1994-06-07 | Omron Corp | Image display device and microlens array therefor |
US5401968A (en) * | 1989-12-29 | 1995-03-28 | Honeywell Inc. | Binary optical microlens detector array |
US5439621A (en) * | 1993-04-12 | 1995-08-08 | Minnesota Mining And Manufacturing Company | Method of making an array of variable focal length microlenses |
US5504602A (en) * | 1992-10-12 | 1996-04-02 | Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha | LCD including a diffusing screen in a plane where emerging light from one pixel abuts light from adjacent pixels |
US5728509A (en) * | 1991-06-21 | 1998-03-17 | Mitsui Petrochemical Industries, Ltd. | Method of manufacturing an optical device |
US5808657A (en) * | 1996-06-17 | 1998-09-15 | Eastman Kodak Company | Laser printer with low fill modulator array and high pixel fill at a media plane |
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US5871653A (en) * | 1996-10-30 | 1999-02-16 | Advanced Materials Engineering Research, Inc. | Methods of manufacturing micro-lens array substrates for implementation in flat panel display |
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JPH03198003A (en) * | 1989-12-27 | 1991-08-29 | Ricoh Co Ltd | Production of microlens array |
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-
2001
- 2001-07-30 KR KR1020027004154A patent/KR100878966B1/en active IP Right Grant
- 2001-07-30 EP EP01962321A patent/EP1218777A4/en not_active Withdrawn
- 2001-07-30 CN CNB018022359A patent/CN1200304C/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
- 2001-07-30 JP JP2002515480A patent/JP2004505307A/en active Pending
- 2001-07-30 WO PCT/US2001/041475 patent/WO2002010805A1/en active Application Filing
- 2001-07-30 AU AU2001283514A patent/AU2001283514A1/en not_active Abandoned
- 2001-07-31 TW TW090118831A patent/TWI238266B/en not_active IP Right Cessation
- 2001-07-31 TW TW093126107A patent/TWI241415B/en not_active IP Right Cessation
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JPS5483846A (en) * | 1977-12-16 | 1979-07-04 | Canon Inc | Diffusing plate |
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US5871653A (en) * | 1996-10-30 | 1999-02-16 | Advanced Materials Engineering Research, Inc. | Methods of manufacturing micro-lens array substrates for implementation in flat panel display |
US5867307A (en) * | 1996-11-13 | 1999-02-02 | Raytheon Company | Blur film assembly for infrared optical applications |
JPH11344602A (en) * | 1998-03-30 | 1999-12-14 | Seiko Epson Corp | Production of microlens substrate with black matrix, counter substrate for liquid crystal panel, liquid crystal panel and projection type display device |
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Title |
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Cited By (1)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US7241559B2 (en) | 2002-10-04 | 2007-07-10 | Corning Incorporated | Lens array and method for fabricating the lens array |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
JP2004505307A (en) | 2004-02-19 |
AU2001283514A1 (en) | 2002-02-13 |
EP1218777A4 (en) | 2005-12-28 |
KR20020044154A (en) | 2002-06-14 |
CN1200304C (en) | 2005-05-04 |
TWI241415B (en) | 2005-10-11 |
TWI238266B (en) | 2005-08-21 |
TW200502586A (en) | 2005-01-16 |
CN1386204A (en) | 2002-12-18 |
KR100878966B1 (en) | 2009-01-19 |
EP1218777A1 (en) | 2002-07-03 |
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