PLoS ONE (Jan 2016)

High-Quality Large-Magnification Polymer Lens from Needle Moving Technique and Thermal Assisted Moldless Fabrication Process.

  • Ratthasart Amarit,
  • Atcha Kopwitthaya,
  • Prasit Pongsoon,
  • Ungkarn Jarujareet,
  • Kosom Chaitavon,
  • Supanit Porntheeraphat,
  • Sarun Sumriddetchkajorn,
  • Thaweesak Koanantakool

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0146414
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
p. e0146414

Abstract

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The need of mobile microscope is escalating as well as the demand of high quality optical components in low price. We report here a novel needle moving technique to fabricate milli-size lens together with thermal assist moldless method. Our proposed protocol is able to create a high tensile strength structure of the lens and its base which is beneficial for exploiting in convertinga smart phone to be a digital microscope. We observe that no bubble trapped in a lens when this technique is performed which can overcome a challenge problem found in a typical dropping technique. We demonstrate the symmetry, smoothness and micron-scale resolution of the fabricated structure. This proposed technique is promising to serve as high quality control mass production without any expensive equipment required.