An ultra-surface-based planar lens integrated into a MEMS scanner with SEM images to the left and optical microscopy images to the right Integrating a super lens on a MEMS device will help integrate high-speed dynamic control and precision waves Front space control advantages, to create a new model of light control
At present, the lens technology has made great strides in all fields, from digital cameras to high-bandwidth optical fibers, and then to the LIGO of the Gravitational Wave Observatory of the Laser Interferometer equipment Etc. Now a new lens technology has been developed using standard computer chip manufacturing techniques or a multilayer structure and geometry that will replace traditional curved lens complexity.
Unlike traditional curved lenses, planar lenses based on super-surface optical nanomaterials are relatively lighter. When super-surface subwavelength nanostructures form some repeating pattern, they can mimic the complex curvature that can refract light, but with smaller volumes , More concentrated light, while reducing distortion, but most of these nanostructured devices are static, limited functionality.
According to the Maxs Consulting report, super lens technology pioneer Federico Capasso, an applied physicist at Harvard University in the USA, and Daniel Lopez, an early developer of MEMS technology at the Argonne National Laboratory for Nanomaterials and Devices in the Argonne National Laboratory, both of whom Some brainstorming has added motion control capabilities to super-lenses, such as fast scanning and beam control, or new super-lens applications.
Capasso and Lopez partnered to develop a device that incorporates mid-IR superconducting lenses on MEMS and published the findings in this week's APL Photonics journal.
MEMS is a combination of microelectronic and micromachined semiconductor technology found in computers and smartphones, including mechanical microstructures such as sensors, actuators and micro gears. MEMS is now almost ubiquitous, from smartphones to car airbags , Biosensor devices and optics, etc. MEMS can be manufactured using semiconductor technologies found in typical computer chips.
Lopez said: 'The high density of thousands of independently controlled MEMS lens devices on a single silicon chip enables unprecedented light control and operation in the field of optics.'
Researchers fabricated this super-surface lens using standard photolithography on a SOI insulator-on-silicon (2-micron top device layer, 200-nm buried oxide and 600-micron substrate layer) A central MEMS scanner (essentially a micromirror that deflects light for high-speed optical path length modulation) is aligned, fixed by depositing tiny platinum plates, and finally the planar lens is mounted on a MEMS scanner.
'Our MEMS prototype with an integrated superficial lens can be electronically controlled to change the angle of rotation of the planar lens and perform focus scans over a few degrees,' said Lopez. 'In addition, this MEMS with an ultra-superficial planar lens Scanner proof-of-concept products can also be extended to the visible and other spectral ranges for a wide range of potential applications such as MEMS-based microscopy, holographic and projection imaging, LiDAR scanners and laser printing.
Under electrostatic actuation, the MEMS platform controls the lens movement in both orthogonal axes and focuses the planar lens about 9 degrees in each direction, according to the researchers, who estimate that the focusing efficiency is about 85%.
'This super-lens can be mass-produced in the future with semiconductor technology or will replace traditional lenses in a wide range of applications,' Capasso added.