Optimum electrostatic force control for fabricating a hybrid UV-curable aspheric lens

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to use a hybrid structure and the electrostatic force to fabricate aspheric lenses with high optical transmittance (95% at 405 nm). The hybrid structure is composed of Norland Optical Adhesive 63 (NOA63) (refractive index: 1.5802 at 405 nm) and BK-7 glass (refractive index: 1.5302). OSLO (Optics Software for Layout and Optimization) and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software packages were used to simulate the electric field gradient between the top and bottom electrodes and to produce the optimum bottom electrode design. Different electrode designs were also tested in order to optimize the morphology of the lens profile. The resulting lens profiles have clear apertures of approximately 0.92 mm with maximum shape errors of less than 0.18% and the spot size of the fabricated aspheric lenses can be controlled to approximately 0.504 µm. This technology can be used as a generic approach to fabricate lenses for applications in various micro-optical systems.