Individually tunable liquid lens arrays using transparent graphene for compound eye applications

Abstract

For the first time, this paper reports a tunable liquid lens array that can be individually controlled by electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) and pneumatic pressure. Flexible and transparent graphene electrodes are fabricated on a highly deformable membrane made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and parylene. The design has many advantages for compound eye applications, including a large field of view (FOV), a compact size and fast responses. Potassium chloride (KCl) and ionic liquid have been tested as liquid lenses with the tunable ranges of focal length between 3 and 8mm. Their optical performancees including, enlargement of FOV and the tuning of focal length of individual lens have been demonstrated.