A Gradient Index Liquid Crystal Microlens Array for Light-Field Camera Applications

Kwon, Hyejin; Kizu, Yuko; Kizaki, Yukio; Ito, Machiko; Kobayashi, M.; Ueno, Risako; Suzuki, Koji; Funaki, Hideyuki

doi:10.1109/lpt.2015.2393875

Cited by 27 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…4), which is able to be designed to be thinner and arranged in honey-comb structure with higher fill-factor than those of stacked LC MLA [8]. The GRIN LC MLA is obtained by controlling the electric field between the molded-and-buried concave and planar electrodes.…”

Section: Lc Mla Utilizing Molded-and-buried Electrodementioning

confidence: 99%

I1.2: Invited Paper: Switchable Liquid Crystal Micro Lens Arrays for the Light‐Field Camera Application

Kwon

Ito

Kizu

et al. 2015

Symp Digest of Tech Papers

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Section: Lc Mla Utilizing Molded-and-buried Electrodementioning

confidence: 99%

I1.2: Invited Paper: Switchable Liquid Crystal Micro Lens Arrays for the Light‐Field Camera Application

Kwon

Ito

Kizu

et al. 2015

Symp Digest of Tech Papers

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“…Specifically, among the three main designs, the plenoptic camera based on the MLA has a very promising development prospect due to its small size, low cost, and light-field acquisition in a single photographic exposure. Recently, liquid-crystal microlens array (LCMLA)-based plenoptic cameras have attracted a lot of research interest [16][17][18][19], which is owed to the advantages of easy integration with other devices, 2D/3D switchability, ease of manufacture [18][19][20][21][22][23], and, most important, excellent tunability due to the redistribution of liquid-crystal (LC) molecules in the applied electric field [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. Such an excellent tunability enables 2D/3D switchable modes and an extended DOF for LCMLA-based plenoptic cameras [17,18,30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Depth-of-Field-Extended Plenoptic Camera Based on Tunable Multi-Focus Liquid-Crystal Microlens Array

Chen

Dong

et al. 2020

Sensors

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Plenoptic cameras have received a wide range of research interest because it can record the 4D plenoptic function or radiance including the radiation power and ray direction. One of its important applications is digital refocusing, which can obtain 2D images focused at different depths. To achieve digital refocusing in a wide range, a large depth of field (DOF) is needed, but there are fundamental optical limitations to this. In this paper, we proposed a plenoptic camera with an extended DOF by integrating a main lens, a tunable multi-focus liquid-crystal microlens array (TMF-LCMLA), and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor together. The TMF-LCMLA was fabricated by traditional photolithography and standard microelectronic techniques, and its optical characteristics including interference patterns, focal lengths, and point spread functions (PSFs) were experimentally analyzed. Experiments demonstrated that the proposed plenoptic camera has a wider range of digital refocusing compared to the plenoptic camera based on a conventional liquid-crystal microlens array (LCMLA) with only one corresponding focal length at a certain voltage, which is equivalent to the extension of DOF. In addition, it also has a 2D/3D switchable function, which is not available with conventional plenoptic cameras.

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“…In the literature, is possible to find several proposals to solve these problems, for example an extended Depth of Field (DOF) was proposed in 27 by using a multifocal fixed lens. For the loss of resolution, switchable LC lenses were proposed in 28 . The DOF has been demonstrated to be tunable in 29 and 30 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tunable liquid crystal multifocal microlens array

Algorri

Bennis

Urruchi

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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A novel liquid crystal microlens array with tunable multifocal capability, high optical power and fill-factor is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. A specific hole pattern design produces a multifocal array with only one voltage control. Three operations modes are possible, “Off”, “Tunable Multifocal” and “Unifocal”. The design is patterned in both substrates. Then, the substrates are arranged in symmetrical configuration. The result is a high optical power in comparison with typical hole patterned structures. Besides, it is proposed a hexagonal pattern that produces a high fill factor, specially indicated for some applications as Integral Imaging. The array has several useful characteristics for this type of application: tunability for the loss of resolution; multifocal for extended DOF; high fill factor for increase the number of views; and low power consumption for integration in portable devices. Moreover, the optical characteristics of the proposed device could bring new applications in other fields.

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A Gradient Index Liquid Crystal Microlens Array for Light-Field Camera Applications

Cited by 27 publications

References 5 publications

I1.2: Invited Paper: Switchable Liquid Crystal Micro Lens Arrays for the Light‐Field Camera Application

I1.2: Invited Paper: Switchable Liquid Crystal Micro Lens Arrays for the Light‐Field Camera Application

Depth-of-Field-Extended Plenoptic Camera Based on Tunable Multi-Focus Liquid-Crystal Microlens Array

Tunable liquid crystal multifocal microlens array

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