Rapid Fabrication of Silica Microlens Arrays via Glass 3D Printing

Liu, Chunxin; Oriekhov, Taras; Lee, Cherrie; Harvey, C. M.; Fokine, Michael

doi:10.1089/3dp.2022.0112

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Alternative filament-based methods have used CO 2 lasers to print transparent glass lenses from a single-mode optical fiber and fused quartz filaments. [40][41][42] However, these molten glass methods often result in layering defects that reduce optical performance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Printing, Characterizing, and Assessing Transparent 3D Printed Lenses for Optical Imaging

Rooney,

Christopher,

Watson

et al. 2024

Adv Materials Technologies

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High‐quality lens production has involved subtractive manufacturing methods for centuries. These methods demand specialist equipment and expertise that often render custom high‐grade glass optics inaccessible. A low‐cost, accessible, and reproducible method is developed to manufacture high‐quality three dimensional (3D) printed lenses using consumer‐grade technology. Various planoconvex lenses are produced using a consumer‐grade 3D printer and low‐cost spin coating setup, and printed lenses are compared to commercial glass counterparts. A range of mechanical and optical methods are introduced to determine the surface quality and curvature of 3D printed lenses. Amongst others, high‐resolution interference reflection microscopy methods are used to reconstruct the convex surface of printed lenses and quantify their radius of curvature. The optical throughput and performance of 3D printed lenses are assessed using optical transmissivity measurements and classical beam characterization methods. It is determined that 3D printed lenses have comparable curvature and performance to commercial glass lenses. Finally, the application of 3D printed lenses is demonstrated for brightfield transmission microscopy, resolving sub‐cellular structures over a 2.3 mm field‐of‐view. The high reproducibility and comparable performance of 3D printed lenses present great opportunities for additive manufacturing of bespoke optics for low‐cost rapid prototyping and improved accessibility to high‐quality optics in low‐resource settings.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Printing, Characterizing, and Assessing Transparent 3D Printed Lenses for Optical Imaging

Rooney,

Christopher,

Watson

et al. 2024

Adv Materials Technologies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Alternative filament-based methods have used CO 2 lasers to print transparent glass lenses from a single mode optical fibre and fused quartz filaments [39][40][41]. However, these molten glass methods often result in layering defects that reduce optical performance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the silicon dioxide substrate requires careful mixing with titanium dioxide and a complex series of drying, burnout and sintering steps performed at over 1000 °C that limit users without access to specialist equipment. Alternative filament-based methods have used CO 2 lasers to print transparent glass lenses from a single mode optical fibre and fused quartz filaments [39–41]. However, these molten glass methods often result in layering defects that reduce optical performance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Printing, Characterising, and Assessing Transparent 3D Printed Lenses for Optical Imaging

Rooney,

Christopher,

Watson

et al. 2023

Preprint

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High-quality lens production has involved subtractive manufacturing methods for centuries. These methods demand specialist equipment and expertise that often render custom high-grade glass optics inaccessible. We aimed to develop a low-cost, accessible, and reproducible method to manufacture high-quality three-dimensional (3D) printed lenses using consumer-grade technology. Various planoconvex lenses were produced using a consumer-grade 3D printer and low-cost spin coating setup, and printed lenses were compared to commercial glass counterparts. A range of mechanical and optical methods are introduced to determine the surface quality and curvature of 3D printed lenses. Amongst others, high-resolution interference reflection microscopy methods were used to reconstruct the convex surface of printed lenses and quantify their radius of curvature. The optical throughput and performance of 3D printed lenses were assessed using optical transmissivity measurements and classical beam characterisation methods. We determined that 3D printed lenses had comparable curvature and performance to commercial glass lenses. Finally, we demonstrated the application of 3D printed lenses for brightfield transmission microscopy, resolving sub-cellular structures over a 2.3 mm field-of-view. The high reproducibility and comparable performance of 3D printed lenses present great opportunities for additive manufacturing of bespoke optics for low-cost rapid prototyping and improved accessibility to high-quality optics in low-resource settings.

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“…The micrographs in Figure 4c have the mask focused by the microlenses belonging to the letter 'S', whereas Figure 4d shows the micrograph taken on a different focal plane, where the mask is focused by the microlens belonging to the letter 'T'. Such multi-focal optics on a single platform could be used for 3D imaging properties [42,43]. The focal lengths of the fabricated microlenses were then measured experimentally.…”

Section: Optical Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laser-Induced Fabrication of Micro-Optics on Bioresorbable Calcium Phosphate Glass for Implantable Devices

et al. 2023

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In this study, a single-step nanosecond laser-induced generation of micro-optical features is demonstrated on an antibacterial bioresorbable Cu-doped calcium phosphate glass. The inverse Marangoni flow of the laser-generated melt is exploited for the fabrication of microlens arrays and diffraction gratings. The process is realized in a matter of few seconds and, by optimizing the laser parameters, micro-optical features with a smooth surface are obtained showing a good optical quality. The tunability of the microlens’ dimensions is achieved by varying the laser power, allowing the obtaining of multi-focal microlenses that are of great interest for three-dimensional (3D) imaging. Furthermore, the microlens’ shape can be tuned between hyperboloid and spherical. The fabricated microlenses exhibited good focusing and imaging performance and the variable focal lengths were measured experimentally, showing good agreement with the calculated values. The diffraction gratings obtained by this method showed the typical periodic pattern with a first-order efficiency of about 5.1%. Finally, the dissolution characteristics of the fabricated micropatterns were studied in a phosphate-buffered saline solution (PBS, pH = 7.4) demonstrating the bioresorbability of the micro-optical components. This study offers a new approach for the fabrication of micro-optics on bioresorbable glass, which could enable the manufacturing of new implantable optical sensing components for biomedical applications.

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Rapid Fabrication of Silica Microlens Arrays via Glass 3D Printing

Cited by 7 publications

References 34 publications

Printing, Characterizing, and Assessing Transparent 3D Printed Lenses for Optical Imaging

Printing, Characterizing, and Assessing Transparent 3D Printed Lenses for Optical Imaging

Printing, Characterising, and Assessing Transparent 3D Printed Lenses for Optical Imaging

Laser-Induced Fabrication of Micro-Optics on Bioresorbable Calcium Phosphate Glass for Implantable Devices

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