The purpose of this study is to analyze the optical properties of a liquid lens and design a magnetism-driven mechanism for that lens. The lens is composed of a base plate, a glass covered liquid reservoir, a flexible membrane (which is opposite to the glass side of the liquid reservoir), a disk with an o-ring, a spring, three permanent magnets, and three solenoids. The permanent magnets are fixed on the disk, which is used to control the displacement of the o-ring. The o-ring is on the top of the membrane and is designed to move the o-ring. When the solenoid is operated, the o-ring squeezes the membrane, the curvature of the membrane is changed and the focus can be varied according to the magnitude of curvature change. The aberration of the lens can be obtained through analysis by substituting the membrane profile into ZEMAX software. The effect of different ring diameter and thickness to the spherical aberration is analyzed. Finally, a detail magnetism-driven mechanism is designed and discussed.

Date Published: 11 September 2008
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 7061, Novel Optical Systems Design and Optimization XI, 70610P (11 September 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.793607

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7061:
Novel Optical Systems Design and Optimization XI
R. John Koshel; James D. Moore Jr.; David H. Krevor; G. Groot Gregory, Editor(s)