Microlens array manufactured by inkjet printing: study of the effects of the solvent and the polymer concentration on the microstructure shape

I. A. Grimaldi; A. De Girolamo Del Mauro; F. Loffredo; G. Nenna; F. Villani; C. Minarini

doi:10.1117/12.890198

27 May 2011 Microlens array manufactured by inkjet printing: study of the effects of the solvent and the polymer concentration on the microstructure shape

I. A. Grimaldi, A. De Girolamo Del Mauro, F. Loffredo, G. Nenna, F. Villani, C. Minarini

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8082, Optical Measurement Systems for Industrial Inspection VII; 808244 (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.890198
Event: SPIE Optical Metrology, 2011, Munich, Germany

Abstract

Recently, the inkjet printing (IJP) technology was advised as a direct method for the fabrication of high-quality and high-precision microlenses overcoming the drawbacks of the traditional techniques which usually require multiple complex processing steps making the fabrication costly. IJP has the great advantage to be extremely versatile in definition of the patterns of microstructures to be realized employing polymers with suitable optical transmission and thermo-mechanical properties. In the present work, we reported the manufacturing of microlenses by inkjet printing Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) solutions prepared with different solvents (toluene, N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone, chlorobenzene, ortho-dichlorobenzene) and solvent mixtures at different mixing ratios and investigated the effects of these parameters on the shape and the geometry of the microstructures. These structures were analyzed by means of interferometric Mach- Zehnder technique in confocal configuration and the wave aberrations were evaluated. The results showed the feasibility of manufacturing microlenses via IJP with diameters ranging from 40 to 90 μm and focal lengths of the order of magnitude of hundred micron.

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I. A. Grimaldi, A. De Girolamo Del Mauro, F. Loffredo, G. Nenna, F. Villani, and C. Minarini "Microlens array manufactured by inkjet printing: study of the effects of the solvent and the polymer concentration on the microstructure shape", Proc. SPIE 8082, Optical Measurement Systems for Industrial Inspection VII, 808244 (27 May 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.890198

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