I NTRODUCTI ON

The theory behind liquid lens is based on the properties of one or

more fluids to create magnifications within a small amount of space.
Liquid lens can be considered as "infinitely variables" lens with
variable focus, and the focus is controlled without using any moving
parts. The focus of a liquid lens is controlled by the surface of the
liquid. Water forms naturally a bubble shape when adhered to
materials such as glass or plastics. This desirable property makes
water a very suitable candidate for the production of a liquid lens. To
generate a liquid lens, a mixture of two liquids is sandwiched
between two pieces of clear plastics or glass. The second liquid
needs to encapsulate the water drop and to fill any free space or
void. It is well known that water and oil do not mix, and oil is also
inexpensive and safe to use. Therefore, oil is chosen to be used as
the other liquid mixture for the liquid lens system. The surface profiles
of the liquids determine the focal length of the liquid lens system, and
ultimately, how the liquid lens focuses light. In other words, by
altering the surface profile of the liquids, the focal length can be
adjusted. This is done by changing the shape and size of the drop of
water within the liquid lens.
2

IMRE has made a breakthrough in lens technology. The lens is
cheaper to make has optical zooming abilities and uses only a
fraction of the space of most conventional lenses are called as
fluidlens or liquidlens. In the past 2-3 decades, the need for
miniaturization of optical systems has increased dramatically,
especially incoherent light handling, for various applications including
communications, data storage, security or personal identification.
More recently this trend has extended to imaging systems. Nowadays
camera modules, integrating a digital sensor and an optical system
altogether, have entered into mobile phones and slim digital cameras,
bringing the need for develop in miniature optical systems.
The camera module were developed first with low count pixels and
ultra small format sensors (CIF resolution, single element lens), but
the need for better image quality leads now to the
development of mega pixels sensors, 1/4 or less.
These sensors are now commercially available,
but the need for auto focus and zoom compound
lenses remains open: no commercial solution
exists up to now at reasonable prices for this very
large scale market.

3

The liquid lens technology that we present here could be the solution
to this demanding application.
A new principle of variable lenses with tunable focal length will be
demonstrated : two iso-density non-miscible liquids are trapped inside
a transparent cell. The liquid-liquid interface forms a drop shape. The
natural interfacial tension between liquids produces a smooth optical
interface, which curvature is actuated by electrowetting. In addition, in
order to have a usable lens, it is necessary to incorporate a centering
mechanism, such that optical axis remains stable. Intrinsic physical
limitations will be presented as well as actual performances of the
technology. Several applications will be discussed in the
autofocus/macro/zoom optics for CMOS and CCD miniature imagers.
But, because the technique relies on the surface tension of the liquids
inside the lens, it cannot be used to make lenses larger than a
centimetre in diameter. This would place a limit on the resolution of
images.
Nonetheless, Kuiper believes that FluidFocus lenses could be
especially useful for reading from Blu-Ray DVD disks, which store
information more densely than ordinary DVDs. Blu-Ray players
require highly accurate optical systems capable of adjusting for
distortions that naturally occur during dual layer disc reading and
writing.
4

The FluidFocus lens will be demonstrated at the technology fair
CeBit, in Hannover, Germany, next week. Kuiper says the first
devices that incorporate fluid lenses be available by 2005.
What is a liquid_ ^ lens?
To generate a liquid lens, a mixture
of two liquids is sandwiched
between two pieces of clear plastics
or glass. The second liquid needs to
encapsulate the water drop and to
fill any free space or void. It is well
known that water and oil do not mix,
and oil is also
inexpensive and safe to use. Therefore, oil is chosen to be used as
the other liquid mixture for the liquid lens system.
A liquid lens uses one or more fluids to create an infinitely- variable
lens without any moving parts by controlling the meniscus (the
surface of the liquid.) There are two primary types Transmissive and
Reflective. These are not to be confused with liquid-formed lenses
that are created by placing a drop of plastic or epoxy on a surface,
which is then allowed to harden into a lens shape.

5

Reflective liquid lenses are actually variable mirrors, and are used in
reflector telescopes in place of traditional glass mirrors. When a
container of fluid (in this case, mercury) is rotated, centripetal force
creates a smooth reflective concavity that is ideally suited for
telescope applications. Normally, such a smooth curved surface has
to be meticulously ground and polished into glass in an extremely
expensive and tricky process (remember the Hubble Space
Telescope mirror fiasco). A reflective liquid lens would never suffer
from that problem, as a simple change in rotation speed would
change the curve of the meniscus to the proper shape. Scientists at
the University of British Columbia (UBC) have built a 236-inch (6-
meter) Liquid Mirror Telescope (LMT). The world's 13th largest
telescope, its reflective surface is made of a flat container of mercury
spinning at about 5 RPM. The telescope costs only about $1 million,
a significant reduction from the roughly $100 million cost of what a
conventional telescope with a regular solid glass mirror of the same
size would require. Transmissive liquid lenses use two immiscible
fluids, each with a different refractive index, to create variable-focus
lenses of high optical quality as small as 10 pm (microns). The two
fluids, one an electrically conducting aqueous solution and one a
nonconducting oil, are contained in a short tube with transparent end
caps. The interior of the tube and one of the caps is coated with a
hydrophobic material, which causes the aqueous solution to form a
6

hemispherical lens-shaped mass at the opposite end of the tube. The
shape of the lens is adjusted by applying a dc voltage across the
coating to decrease its water repellency in a process called
electrowetting. Electrowetting adjusts the liquid's surface tension,
changing the radius of curvature in the meniscus and thereby the
focal length of the lens. Only 0.1 micro joules (pJ) are needed for
each change of focus. Extremely shock and vibration resistant, such
a lens is capable of seamless transition from convex (convergent) to
concave (divergent) lens shapes with switching times measured in
milliseconds. In addition, the boundary between the two fluids forms
an extremely smooth and regular surface, making liquid lenses of a
quality suitable for endoscopic medical imaging and other space-
constrained high- resolution applications like micro cameras and
fiber-optic telecommunications systems.
The aforementioned liquid-formed lenses are a cool technology as
well, and used mostly on image sensors. Tiny drops of epoxy are
placed on each pixel, which then form individual lenses to increase
light-capturing ability. They are also used on novelty items to create a
magnifying effect.


7

WORKI NG PRI NCI PLE:
The magnifying principle of a liquid lens is similar to that of our eye.
When we try to see an object, the light which comes from the object
falls on our eye ball. Our eye ball(pupil) has the ability to contract or
expand itself depending upon the position of the object. Which then
leaves the perfect light ray to fall on the retina which results visibility
of the object.If the pupil cant adjust itself then we are not able to see
the object.The liquid lens acts on the same principle.
8



The lens has an actuator which is driven by the dielectric power.
Which results in adjustment of the lens, hence we are able to
take the picture.
The figure below depicts the configuration of a liquid lens
actuated by the dielectric force. The liquid lens consists of a 15pL
(liquid) droplet with a low dielectric constant and a sealing liquid
with a high dielectric constant. The bottom diameter of the droplet
was 7mm when no voltage was applied. The two liquids were
injected inside a 3mm thick PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate)
chamber that was sealed


00544974
9

between two ITO glass substrates. The concentric ITO electrodes on the
bottom glass substrate were coated with 1pm thick Teflon to reduce
friction between the droplet and the glass substrate. The width and
spacing of the ITO electrodes was 50pm. The mass density of the
sealing liquid was adjusted to match that of the droplet to minimize the
gravitational effect, since the gravitational effect may induce no uniform
deformation of the droplet profile, causing optical aberrations. As the
voltage was applied, a dielectric force arose on the droplet due to the
difference in the dielectric constant between the two liquids. The
dielectric force shrunk the droplet, increasing the droplet's contact angle
and shortening the focal length of the liquid lens. The dielectric force
induced is described by equation given below

where z0 is the permittivity of free space, z1 and z2 are dielectric
constants of the sealing liquid and the droplet, respectively. E denotes
the electric field intensity across the interface of the two liquids


, ... o o _ o _ o _ . . ,
Electro__________________ wetting_______________ Principle:


( fig. A typical liquid lens)

11

This principle states that whenever no voltage is applied to the drop of
liquid then it is phobic of the surface. As the voltage increases the
liquid wets the surface more.
This principle helps in adjusting the lens which can make the lens to
behave like concave & convex as per the requirement.
Two non miscible liquids of same density instead of having a water
drop in air, one works with water and oil. This condition is necessary for
suppressing any optical distortion of the gravity on the liquid-liquid
interface, which enables to use the lens in every orientation.

Inversion of the conducting and non conducting
fluid. In current electrowetting experiments, the water is used as a drop
immersed in


12

the non conducting fluid (air). For application, it will be preferable to work
with a drop of the insulating fluid (oil) immersed in the conducting fluid
(water). This is to avoid any optical perturbation of the liquid-liquid
interface due to the liquid meniscus at the electrode touching the
conducting fluid. It is preferable to use an oil drop immersed into a
conducting fluid (water based solution) which can be connected to the
outside without perturbing the liquidliquid interface. This inversion is
not strictly necessary, as in former publications it is mentioned that
contact could be made through the insulating . Nevertheless, in practical
realization the inversion of oil and water is preferable.
Centering mean : some publications have mentioned in the past how to
use small liquid droplets as optical lenses [6], but if this lens has to be
inserted in a more complex system, it needs precise alignments of optical
lenses. The fig 1 shows that if no centering mean is applied, the drop can
freely move in the transverse directions while the focal length is changed.
We have the experience of such random displacements which prevent to
use the lens. The liquid-liquid interface thus needs then to be precisely
controlled and any physical realization of lenses have to incorporate such
a centering mean This centering of the liquid-liquid interface can be
obtained by several ways. The following are given as example, and many
others can be found:
applying electric field gradient using variable thickness of the
insulator film.
the natural gradient present at the edge of an electrode can be
used. In the case of lenses developed by Lucent, a decentering force can
13

be applied through angular sector electrodes. Such decent ring force can
only be used if a centering force (restoring force) exists, such that the
balance between the decentering forces and the centering forces can
bring a stable equilibrium. Although this was not explicitly discussed in
the publications of Lucent, we believe that in their case the centering
effect comes either from the edge effect of the ring electrode, or from the
gap between sector electrodes, which could play this role too, if well
designed.
it can also be obtained as a result of the geometry of the supporting
surface for the two fluids. It has been shown that inwards cones, cylinder
and some toroidal shapes are centering surfaces for the liquid-liquid
interface. Cylinder the contrary, some surfaces having an inward high
insides and cylinder edges have also been proposed. On curvature are
not suited for centering the liquid-liquid interface.
WORKING DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
CONVENTIONAL & LIQUID LENS
Liquid lens working like human eye. So here we
compare conventional lens with human eye.
14

Conventional Camera
Length between lens and
focal plane adjusted to
focus image.
Human Eye
Shape and curvature o
the lens changed to
focus image





The optical characteristic of the liquid lens that were measured
experimentally included the droplet's contact angle and its hysteresis, the
conic constant of the droplet, focal length tuning, and focal spot size.
Further, focal length tuning, focal spot size and spherical aberration were
verified using simulation tools and theory. The contact angle of the
droplet in the packaged liquid lens was measured at various voltages as
shown in Figure 2(a). The intrinsic contact angle of the droplet was
measured to be 25. The contact


Leus stietchiug to incleast focal le


(a)

angle began to significantly increase at voltages over 50 volts and
reached 58 at 200 volts. Hysteresis of the droplet's contact angle was
observed and its maximum was found to be 12.5 at 120 volts. Figure
2(b) shows that the conic constants of the droplet were close to zero at
various voltages, implying that the droplet maintained a spherical profile
at all focal lengths. Hence, the surface profile of the droplet could be
assumed to be spherical during actuation. The actuation of the droplet in
the liquid lens was captured by a highspeed CCD camera. The rise time
was measured to be about 650ms when the liquid lens was actuated from
the rest state to 200 volts. When the applied voltage was switched off, the
measured fall time was 300ms.
Fig. The measured receding contact angles and advancing contact
angles of the droplet in a liquid lens versus the applied voltages. The
insets show the droplets actuated at various voltages. Left: the droplet
was at the rest state. Right: the droplet was actuated at 200V.


s
3
0
0
>
3
O
A
1
=
<
Q
C
3
H
0 50 100 150 200
Voltage (volt)
16

Focal length measurement of the liquid lens was conducted using a laser
with a wavelength of 532nm and a beam scanner (0180-
XY/LL/SW/1jm/5Hz, Photon Inc.).
The focal length was determined for advancing actuation based on the
minimum spot size resolved along the optic axis. Further, the measured
advancing focal lengths were compared with the paraxial approximation
based on the advancing contact angles in Fig. 2. The measurement
results and the paraxial approximation were in good agreement (see Fig.
3). When the voltage increased from zero to 200 volts, the liquid lens
shortened its focal length from 34mm to 12mm. The electric power
consumed was determined to be less than 1mW.
Features:
Optical focus/zoom system that has no moving parts
Low cost
Compact in size (10pm - 10 mm)
Concave or convex lens can be formed in the same lei chip
Electricity not required when used in manual mode
Electricity used to drive the actuator in auto focus mo but is
not required to sustain the lens curvature at a
M M 4 A I A * M >P1 *
Applications:
Applications of the liquid lenses based on electro wetting can be found in
many areas. Typical possible sizes for the lens pupil range from less than
a millimeter to one centimeter, using the current technology. This makes
this technology ideal for millimetrtic lenses needed now in the mobile
17

phone applications. The very small power consumption (less than one
mW dissipated in the lens) is also a great advantage compared to
conventional motorized systems. All electronic sets integrating optics
could benefit from the simplicity of this technology. Optical pickups,
displays, cameras, computers etc... Again the size under consideration is
well fitted between macro- and microscopic systems. Of course photonic
professional applications could also present good opportunities for our
technology. Many other applications could be envisaged. The liquid ends
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is one adaptive optical components, with a huge amplitude, but rather
limited flexibility on the pattern of phase shifts, limited to what can be done
with a liquid liquid interface. Directly every application where Z scanning is
required could be of interest: the dynamic behavior shown in this paper
demonstrates s possible to apply to the lens a triangular ramp (eventually
damped in order to avoid shocks generated at the reversing of the ramp) in
order to use the full range of dioptric correction upon very fast scans.
Telemetry could use focus information in order to produce 2D and 3D
images at quite good resolutions. Medical applications could also be very
promising, as endoscopes develop on many complex optical functions
including confocal microscopy or Optical Coherent Tomography .
Telecommunications: Optical switches, fibre
optic coupling, mobile phone cameras,
webcams
Data storage: CD, DVD, barcode readers
Analytical equipment: Portable ^5":
microscopes, Sensors "
ft/1 om ifa/'ti irinn
1
I aeair to/*hnAl Anw

19

As a final remark, lasers could be monitored or controlled by the liquid
lens.
Liquids can sometimes produce interesting properties as materials,
which could be of use, even in high power pulsed laser systems.
It has
Dyamic field of view.
Easy to mass produce: manufactured using lithography.
Difficulties:
Far from being a fully developed product.

E.3 E13 E13i
Lens for cameras:

20

Varioptic and Sunny Optics announced
last week that they were making the
Varioptic Arctic 416 auto focus oil and
water lens available in high-end camera
phones. The oil and water lens, which
has no moving parts, replaces traditional
mechanical lens focusing systems.
(Oil and water lens uses
electrowetting)
The Varioptic oil and water lens uses a phenomenon called
"electrowetting" to focus the system. A water droplet is deposited on a
metal substrate covered by an insulating layer. The voltage applied to
the substrate modifies the contact angle of the droplet. A liquid lens
uses two liquids with the same density; one is an insulator while the
other is a conductor. The variation of voltage leads to a change of
curvature of the liquid-liquid interface, which in turn leads to a change
of the focal length of the lens.
Liquid lenses have many advantages over their mechanical
counterparts, including ruggedness (no moving parts), faster
response, excellent optical quality, wide operating temperature

21

range and very low energy consumption (ideal for small mobile
devices). Science fiction fans have been waiting for this since Frank
Herbert wrote about oil lenses in his 1964 classic Dune:
Paul lay ... in a slit of rock high on the shield wall rim, eye fixed to the
collector of a Fremen telescope. The oil lens was focused on a
starship lighter exposed by dawn in the basin below them. (Read more
about oil lens from Dune)
Philips is also working on this technology (there may be some patent
fights involved); see Philips FluidFocus: Variable Focus Fluid Lens.
Varioptic is ramping up production in (where else) Shanghai and
expects to produce 100,000 lenses per month in addition to the
production in its plant in Lyon, France. Read more in the 2MP
Autofocus Camera Module with Varioptic Liquid Lens press release
and Varioptic comes into focus with liquid phone camera lenses. Scroll
down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted
2/18/2007) .
Schreiber and colleagues worked with Varioptic, French pioneers of
liquid lenses, to come up with a design that switches from a normal
view to 2.5-times magnification. The design consists of four liquid
lenses and three fixed plastic lenses and offers a magnification of 2.5
times, while when all four lenses are at their flattest there
is nomagnification.
22

The complete length of the system from outer lens to image sensor is
29mm, but it should be possible to reduce that, says Schreiber.
Varioptic is now considering how to take the design on to then
prototype stage.
The lenses are arranged to prevent image distortion while minimising
colour distortion. Red, green and blue images must be recorded in
sequence and then combined digitally, a process that would increase
exposure times, says Schreiber, finding less distorting liquids to build
the lenses out of is the answer to that problem.So although it
potentially sounds like great news, this is probably another new
technology which wont find its way into DSLR cameras for a few years
yet. For smaller lenses such as camera phones it could find a market,
but well have to see how this one pans out.
Conclusion: