An Electrically Tunable Focusing Pico-Projector Adopting a Liquid Crystal Lens

Lin, Hung Chun; Lin, Yi-Hsin

doi:10.1143/jjap.49.102502

Cited by 56 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The LC lens proposed by some of the authors (M. Y., B. W., and S. S.) exhibits very low optical aberrations and its optical quality is close to those of conventional plastic or glass lenses [1,2]. Several papers have reported its applications in optical systems [3][4][5][6][7][8]. By using the LC lens, lens movements and the mechanism to drive the lens become unnecessary, and reliable, compact, low-weight, and low-cost optical systems in, in particularly, mobile devices and automation machines, become possible.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Liquid crystal lens with electrically controllable focal length

Wang

Uchida

et al. 2011

2011 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Liquid crystal lens with electrically controllable focal length

Wang

Uchida

et al. 2011

2011 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation

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“…an inverse of focal length in an unit of m −1 , diopter or D) without any mechanically moving part, light weight, and low power consumption. Many structures and applications of LC lenses are developing, especially for the portable applicat ions of adaptive optics, such as camera systems, pico projection systems, endoscopic systems, zoom systems, and ophthalmic lenses [1][2][3][4][5]. Diffractive Fresnel LC lenses proposed in ophthalmic applications of presbyopia in 2006 [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrically Tunable Ophthalmic Lenses for Myopia and Presbyopia Using Liquid Crystals

Chen

Lin

2014

Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals

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In this paper, an electrically tunable-focusing and polarizer-free liquid crystal (LC) lens for ophthalmic lenses is demonstrated. The optical operating principles of the LC lens in a human eye system are introduced and the optical principle of the polarization independent of the double-layered LC lens is investigated. The polarization dependency, image quality and the response time of the double-layered LC lens are measured. The continuously tunable-focusing properties of the LC lenses are more practical in applications for different visional conditions of people. The concept in this paper can also be extensively applied to imaging systems, and projection systems, such as cameras in cell phones, pico projectors, and endoscopes.

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“…The focal length of such a LC phase modulator or LC lens can be tunable as a positive lens or a negative lens depending on the electric fields [10,11]. LC lenses have various applications including image systems [12], pico-projector systems [13], optical zoom systems [14], concentrated photovoltaic systems [15], holographic systems [16], and ophthalmic lens [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Electrically Tunable Liquid Crystal Lens for Fiber Coupling and Variable Optical Attenuation

Lin¹

2014

J Elec Electron Syst

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In this paper, an electrically tunable LC lens for fiber coupling and variable optical attenuation is proposed and demonstrated. The LC lens electrically changes the lens power in order to adjust the beam size incident on the fiber. When the beam size is closed to the core size of the fiber, the LC lens is operated as a lens coupler. When the beam size increases by reducing the lens power, the LC lens is operated as a VOA. After introducing the operating principles, we use a LC lens to experimentally demonstrate the design concept and the results show that the maximum coupling efficiency can be 0.75 and the maximum attenuation can be as large as18 dB. The concept proposed in this paper is not only for LC lenses, but also for other optical components with electrically tunable focusing properties. The study provides a new way to design an optical device for fiber coupling and variable optical attenuation based on electrically tunable focusing optical components. Figure 1a and 1b depict a typical structure of the LC lens with positive and negative lens operations. We use the hole-patterned LC lens to demonstrate the concept [11,12]. In fact, the concept we proposed here can be applied to other structures of LC lenses. The components of the LC lens included three Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) glass substrates, two Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) layers for LC alignment, an insulating layer (Norland product Inc. NOA81), and a 50 μm nematic LC layer (Merck MLC-2070, Δn=0.2609). In order to generate an inhomogeneous electric field, the ITO layer in the middle of the glass substrate was etched with a hole and connected to an applied Alternating Current (AC) voltage of V 1 . PVA layers were coated on the glass substrates and mechanically rubbed in one direction to align the LC molecules. As a result, the LC molecules are aligned parallel to the glass substrate (x-direction in Figure 1) as V 1 =V 2 =0V rms and provide zero lens power (i.e. inverse of the focal length) for x-linearly polarized light. Mechanism and Operating Principles AbstractAn electrically tunable Liquid Crystal (LC) lens for both of fiber coupling and variable optical attenuation is demonstrated. The LC lens modulates the beam waist coupling to the fiber by electrically changing the lens power. When the modulated beam waist is close to the core size of the fiber, the LC lens is operated as a lens coupler. When the beam waist increases by reducing the lens power, the LC lens is operated as a Variable Optical Attenuator (VOA) as a result of the corresponding coupling coefficient variation of the transformed beam into a multimode fiber. The study provides a way to design an optical device for fiber coupling and variable optical attenuation based on electrically tunable focusing optical component.

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An Electrically Tunable Focusing Pico-Projector Adopting a Liquid Crystal Lens

Cited by 56 publications

References 27 publications

Liquid crystal lens with electrically controllable focal length

Liquid crystal lens with electrically controllable focal length

Electrically Tunable Ophthalmic Lenses for Myopia and Presbyopia Using Liquid Crystals

An Electrically Tunable Liquid Crystal Lens for Fiber Coupling and Variable Optical Attenuation

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