Characterisation of adaptive fluidic silicone membrane lenses

Abstract

In this paper the auhtors compare the performance and optical quality of two types of adaptive fluidic silicone-membrane lenses. The membranes feature either a homogeneous thickness, or they are shaped resulting in an inhomogeneous cross-section. The lens systems incorporate a piezoelectric actuator which is operated in a regime of ±40 V. The shaped membrane lenses show lower wave front errors than the planar ones, down to 24 nm. The pumping actuator indicates a maximum pump volume of 1159 nl at an inner piezo radius of 2.75 mm for the smallest supporting ring configuration. The full system with a planar membrane achieves a larger refractive power ranging from +19 to -14 dpt. It also shows a shorter full scale response time (tplanar = 23.9 ms) compared to the shaped membrane (tshaped = 35.4 ms).