Fabrication and characterization of microlens arrays using a cantilever-based spotter

Véronique Bardinal (1) , Emmanuelle Daran (1) , Thierry Leichle (1) , Corinne Vergnenegre (1) , Christophe Levallois (1) , Thierry Camps (1) , Véronique Conédéra (1) , Jean-Baptiste Doucet (1) , Franck Carcenac (1) , Heidi Ottevaere (2) , Hugo Thienpont (2)

1 LAAS - Laboratoire d'analyse et d'architecture des systèmes
2 TONA - Department of Applied Physics and Photonics [Brussels]

We present a quantitative study on the fabrication of microlenses using a low-cost polymer dispending technique. Our method is based on the use of a silicon micro-cantilever robotized spotter system. We first give a detailed description of the technique. In a second part, the fabricated microlenses are fully characterized by means of SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope), AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy) non contact optical profilometry and Mach-Zehnder interferometry. Diameters in the range [25-130μm] are obtained with an average surface roughness of 2.02nm. Curvature radii, focal lengths as well as aberrations are also measured for the first time: the fabricated microlenses present focal lengths in the range [55-181μm] and exhibit high optical quality only limited by diffraction behaviour with RMS aberration lower than λ/14.

Mots clés: Integrated optics; Micro-optics; Micro-optical devices and technology; Lenses; Optical materials; Polymer reactions and polymerization; Optical Design and Fabrication; Optical polymers and other organic optical materials

Domaines: Optique / photonique; Optique [physics.optics]

Véronique Bardinal, Emmanuelle Daran, Thierry Leichle, Corinne Vergnenegre, Christophe Levallois, et al.. Fabrication and characterization of microlens arrays using a cantilever-based spotter. Optics Express, 2007, 15 (11), pp.6900-6907. ⟨10.1364/OE.15.006900⟩. ⟨hal-00490862⟩