• Transactions of the Society of Information Storage Systems
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2006

An optical ROM card system which using an optical probe array generated by Talbot effect was proposed as new robust storage solution. To improve the optical density and to decrease the power consumption of the system, it is very important to make the spot sizes of optical probes smaller as well as to increase the optical efficiency from the light source to optical probes. In this study, a microlens illuminated aperture array for generating high efficiency optical probe away with small beam spot was designed and fabricated using monolithic lithography integration method. The maximum intensity of optical probes of microlens illuminated aperture array increased about 12 times of that of aperture array, and the full width half maximum of the optical probe at Talbot plane generated by microlens illuminated aperture array was $0.77{\mu}m$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.199-199
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• 2009

Recently, polymeric microlens arrays have become important elements in many applications. Microlens arrays have been used to enhance luminance efficiency and luminance power efficiency of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic LEDs. Many processes for fabrication of microlens array are studied. Though the MLA has been fabricated by electroformed mold, LIGA process and reflow method, these methods were required masks, multiple process steps and post processing. In this paper, we proposed rapid and direct UV laser direct fabrication process using colorless liquid photopolymer, NOA60 for polarization activated microlens. The microlens arrays are formed on the NOA60 on glass, after the focused laser energy was irradiated to the material. The diameter of MLA was varied from 42 to 88 ${\mu}m$, and the height from 0.9 to 1.6 ${\mu}m$. The MLA fabricated using NOA60 shows more then 85% transmittance as well as good hardness for optical module.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.2450-2456
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• 2002

Microlenses and microlens arrays are fabricated using a novel fabrication technology based on the exposure of a resist (usually PMMA) to deep X-rays and subsequent thermal treatment. The fabrication technology is very simple and produces microlenses and microlens arrays with good surface roughness (less than 1 nm). The molecular weight and glass transition temperature of PMMA is reduced when it is irradiated with deep X-rays. The microlenses is produced through the effects of volume change, surface tension, and reflow during thermal treatment of irradiated PMMA. The geometry of the microlens is determined by parameters such as the X-ray dose applied to the PMMA, the diameter of the microlens, along with the heating temperature, heating time, and cooling rate in the thermal treatment. Microlenses are produced with diameters ranging from 30 to 1500 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$. The modified LIGA process is used not only to construct hemispherical microlenses but also structures that are rectangular-shaped, star-shaped, etc.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.299-305
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• 2015

In this paper, we propose a simple and low-cost fabrication method of polymer microlens using solvent-vapor-assisted reflow (SVAR). Metal molds for replication of polymer were fabricated using micro milling and the cylindrical shape of polymer was imprinted using hot-embossing process. The cylindrical shape of polymer was changed to hemispherical lens shape by SVAR. The characteristics of fabricated microlens were evaluated according to the condition of SVAR such as temperature and time. The focal length of polymer microlens could be controlled more easily in low-temperature and long-time condition than in high-temperature and short-time condition. That is, the level of concentrated light to focal point could be improved through the control of temperature and time. Also, we confirmed that toluene was more appropriate solvent than acetone in fabrication of PMMA polymer microlens using SVAR.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.16 no.1 s.91
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• pp.48-53
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• 2007

LCD-BLU(Liquid Crystal Display - Back Light Unit) consists of several optical sheets: LGP(Light Guiding Plate), light source and mold frame. The LGP of LCD-BLU is usually manufactured by etching process and forming numerous dots with $50{\mu}m$ in diameter on the surface. But the surface roughness of LGP with etched dots is very high, so there is much loss of light. In order to overcome the limit of current etched dot patterned LGP, optical pattern design with microlens of $50{\mu}m$ diameter was applied in the present study. The microlens pattern fabricated by modified LiGA with thermal reflow process was applied to the optical design of LGP and optical simulation was carried out to know tendency of microlens patterned LGP simultaneously. The attention was paid to the effects of different aspect ratio(i.e. $0.2\sim0.5$) of optical pattern conditions to the brightness distribution of BLU with microlens patterned LGP. Finally, high aspect ratio microlens patterned LGP showed superior results to the one made by low aspect ratio in average luminance.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.30-35
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• 2020

A microlens has been fabricated by various methods such as a thermal reflow, hot embossing, diamond milling, etc. However, these methods require a relatively complex process to control the microlens shape. In this work, we report on a simple and cost-effective method to fabricate a cylindrical microlens (CML), which can diffuse light widely. We have employed a slot-die head with the dual plate (a meniscus guide with a protruded μ-tip and a shim with a slit channel) for coating of a narrow stripe using poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). We have shown that the higher the coating gap, the lower the maximum coating speed, which causes an increase in the stripe width and thickness. The coated PMMA stripe has the concave shape. To make it in the shape of a convex microlens, we have applied the thermal reflow method. When the stripe thickness is small, however, its effect is negligible. To increase the stripe thickness, we have increased the number of repeated coating. With this scheme, we have fabricated the CML with the width of 223 ㎛ and the thickness of 7.3 ㎛. Finally, we have demonstrated experimentally that the CML can diffuse light widely, a feature demanded for light extraction efficiency of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and suppression of moiré patterns in displays.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.465-469
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• 2003

Microlens arrays were fabricated using a novel fabrication technology based on the exposure of a PMMA (Polymethylmethacrylate) sheet to deep X-rays and subsequent thermal treatment. X-ray irradiation causes the decrease of molecular weight of PMMA, which in turn decreases the glass transition temperature and consequently causes a net volume increase during the thermal cycle resulting in a swollen microlens. A new physical modeling and analyses for microlens formation were presented according to experimental procedure. A simple analysis based on the new model is found to be capable of predicting the shapes of microlens which depend on the thermal treatment. For the replication of microlens arrays having various diameters with different foci on the same surface, the hot embossing and the microinjection molding processes has been successfully utilized with a mold insert that is fabricated by Ni-electroplating based on a PMMA microstructure of microlenses. Fabricated microlenses showed good surface roughness with the order of 1 nm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.228-232
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• 2003

Mircolens and microlens arrays are realized using a novel fabrication technology based on the exposure of a resist, usually PMMA, to deep X-rays and subsequent thermal treatment. Hot embossing process is also studied for mass production. The fabrication technology is very simple and produces microlenses and microlens arrays with good surface roughness of several nm. The molecular weight and glass transition temperature of PMMA is reduced when it is irradiated with deep X-rays. The microlenses were produced through the effects of volume change, surface tension. and reflow during thermal treatment of irradiated PMMA. A hot embossing machine is designed and manufactured with a servo motor transfer system. The hot embossing process follows the steps of heating mold to the desired temperature, embossing a mold insert on substrate. cooling mold to the de-embossing temperature. and de-embossing. Microlenses were produced with diameters ranging from 30 to 1500 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$. The surface X-ray mask is also fabricated to realize microlens arrays on PMMA sheet with a large area.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.301-307
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• 2009

Optical sheets with apertures on the opposite side of the substrate are designed and analyzed in order to use them as high efficiency light concentration sheets in LCD edge-lit backlight. Formation of apertures by self-aligning exposure were analyzed for the microlens array sheet, pyramid array sheet, and cone array sheet and the microlens array sheet showed the best performance for the formation of apertures by the self-aligning exposure.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.524-531
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• 2021

In an integral-imaging microscopy (IIM) system, a microlens array (MLA) is the primary optical element; however, surface errors impede the resolution of a raw image's details. Calibration is a major concern with regard to incorrect projection of the light rays. A ray-tracing-based calibration method for an IIM camera is proposed, to address four errors: MLA decentering, rotational, translational, and subimage-scaling errors. All of these parameters are evaluated using the reference image obtained from the ray-traced white image. The areas and center points of the microlens are estimated using an "8-connected" and a "center-of-gravity" method respectively. The proposed approach significantly improves the rectified-image quality and nonlinear image brightness for an IIM system. Numerical and optical experiments on multiple real objects demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of our proposed method, which achieves on average a 35% improvement in brightness for an IIM raw image.