CONTENTS

Page no.

1. Introduction…………………..................2-4

2. What is liquid Lens? ……………...........5-7

3. Working principle. ……………...............8-10

4. Electrowetting. ……………................... 11-14

5. Working difference…………………………15

6. Characteristics. ……………..................16-18

7. Application……..……………................. 18-20

8. Lens for camera…………………………….21-23

9. Conclusion. ……………........................ 24-25

10. Reference. ……………............................26

 INTRODUCTION

The theory behind liquid lens is based on the properties of one or

more fluids to create magnifications within a small amount of
space. Liquid lens can be considered as "infinitely variables" lens
with variable focus, and the focus is controlled without using any
moving parts. The focus of a liquid lens is controlled by the
surface of the liquid. Water forms naturally a bubble shape when
adhered to materials such as glass or plastics. This desirable
property makes water a very suitable candidate for the production
of a liquid lens. To generate a liquid lens, a mixture of two liquids
is sandwiched between two pieces of clear plastics or glass. The
second liquid needs to encapsulate the water drop and to fill any
free space or void. It is well known that water and oil do not mix,
and oil is also inexpensive and safe to use. Therefore, oil is
chosen to be used as the other liquid mixture for the liquid lens
system. The surface profiles of the liquids determine the focal
length of the liquid lens system, and ultimately, how the liquid
lens focuses light. In other words, by altering the surface profile of
the liquids, the focal length can be adjusted. This is done by
changing the shape and size of the drop of water within the liquid
lens.

2
 IMRE has made a breakthrough in lens technology. The lens is
cheaper to make has optical zooming abilities and uses only a
fraction of the space of most conventional lenses are called as
fluidlens or liquidlens. In the past 2-3 decades, the need for
miniaturization of optical systems has increased dramatically,
especially incoherent light handling, for various applications
including communications, data storage, security or personal
identification. More recently this trend has extended to imaging
systems. Nowadays camera modules, integrating a digital sensor
and an optical system altogether, have entered into mobile
phones and slim digital cameras, bringing the need for develop in
miniature optical systems.
The camera module were developed first with
low count pixels and ultra small format
sensors (CIF resolution, single element lens),
but the need for better image quality leads
now to the development of mega pixels
sensors, 1/4” or less. These sensors are now
commercially available, but the need for auto focus and zoom
compound lenses remains open: no commercial solution exists
up to now at reasonable prices for this very large scale market.

3
The liquid lens technology that we present here could be the
solution to this demanding application.
A new principle of variable lenses with tunable focal length will be
demonstrated : two iso-density non-miscible liquids are trapped
inside a transparent cell. The liquid-liquid interface forms a drop
shape. The natural interfacial tension between liquids produces a
smooth optical interface, which curvature is actuated by
electrowetting. In addition, in order to have a usable lens, it is
necessary to incorporate a centering mechanism, such that
optical axis remains stable. Intrinsic physical limitations will be
presented as well as actual performances of the technology.
Several applications will be discussed in the
autofocus/macro/zoom optics for CMOS and CCD miniature
imagers. But, because the technique relies on the surface tension
of the liquids inside the lens, it cannot be used to make lenses
larger than a centimetre in diameter. This would place a limit on
the resolution of images.
Nonetheless, Kuiper believes that FluidFocus lenses could be
especially useful for reading from Blu-Ray DVD disks, which store
information more densely than ordinary DVDs. Blu-Ray players
require highly accurate optical systems capable of adjusting for
distortions that naturally occur during dual layer disc reading and
writing.

4
The FluidFocus lens will be demonstrated at the technology fair
CeBit, in Hannover, Germany, next week. Kuiper says the first
devices that incorporate fluid lenses be available by 2005.
What is a liquid lens?

To generate a liquid lens, a

mixture of two liquids is
sandwiched between two pieces
of clear plastics or glass. The
second liquid needs to
encapsulate the water drop and
to fill any free space or void. It is
well known that water and oil do
not mix, and oil is also
inexpensive and safe to use. Therefore, oil is chosen to be used
as the other liquid mixture for the liquid lens system.
A liquid lens uses one or more fluids to create an infinitely-
variable lens without any moving parts by controlling the
meniscus (the surface of the liquid.) There are two primary types
Transmissive and Reflective. These are not to be confused with
liquid-formed lenses that are created by placing a drop of plastic
or epoxy on a surface, which is then allowed to harden into a lens
shape.

5
Reflective liquid lenses are actually variable mirrors, and are
used in reflector telescopes in place of traditional glass mirrors.
When a container of fluid (in this case, mercury) is rotated,
centripetal force creates a smooth reflective concavity that is
ideally suited for telescope applications. Normally, such a smooth
curved surface has to be meticulously ground and polished into
glass in an extremely expensive and tricky process (remember
the Hubble Space Telescope mirror fiasco). A reflective liquid
lens would never suffer from that problem, as a simple change in
rotation speed would change the curve of the meniscus to the
proper shape. Scientists at the University of British Columbia
(UBC) have built a 236-inch (6-meter) Liquid Mirror Telescope
(LMT). The world's 13th largest telescope, its reflective surface is
made of a flat container of mercury spinning at about 5 RPM. The
telescope costs only about $1 million, a significant reduction from
the roughly $100 million cost of what a conventional telescope
with a regular solid glass mirror of the same size would require.
Transmissive liquid lenses use two immiscible fluids, each with a
different refractive index, to create variable-focus lenses of high
optical quality as small as 10 µm (microns). The two fluids, one
an electrically conducting aqueous solution and one a
nonconducting oil, are contained in a short tube with transparent
end caps. The interior of the tube and one of the caps is coated

6
with a hydrophobic material, which causes the aqueous solution
to form a hemispherical lens-shaped mass at the opposite end of
the tube. The shape of the lens is adjusted by applying a dc
voltage across the coating to decrease its water repellency in a
process called electrowetting. Electrowetting adjusts the liquid's
surface tension, changing the radius of curvature in the meniscus
and thereby the focal length of the lens. Only 0.1 micro joules
(µJ) are needed for each change of focus. Extremely shock and
vibration resistant, such a lens is capable of seamless transition
from convex (convergent) to concave (divergent) lens shapes
with switching times measured in milliseconds. In addition, the
boundary between the two fluids forms an extremely smooth and
regular surface, making liquid lenses of a quality suitable for
endoscopic medical imaging and other space-constrained high-
resolution applications like micro cameras and fiber-optic
telecommunications systems.
The aforementioned liquid-formed lenses are a cool technology
as well, and used mostly on image sensors. Tiny drops of epoxy
are placed on each pixel, which then form individual lenses to
increase light-capturing ability. They are also used on novelty
items to create a magnifying effect.

7
 WORKING PRINCIPLE:

The magnifying principle of a liquid lens is similar to that of our

eye. When we try to see an object, the light which comes from
the object falls on our eye ball. Our eye ball(pupil) has the ability
to contract or expand itself depending upon the position of the
object. Which then leaves the perfect light ray to fall on the retina
which results visibility of the object.If the pupil can’t adjust itself
then we are not able to see the object.The liquid lens acts on the
same principle.

8
The lens has an actuator which is driven by the dielectric
power. Which results in adjustment of the lens, hence we are
able to take the picture.
The figure below depicts the configuration of a liquid lens
actuated by the dielectric force. The liquid lens consists of a
15μL (liquid) droplet with a low dielectric constant and a
sealing liquid with a high dielectric constant. The bottom
diameter of the droplet was 7mm when no voltage was
applied. The two liquids were injected inside a 3mm thick
PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) chamber that was sealed

9
between two ITO glass substrates. The concentric ITO
electrodes on the bottom glass substrate were coated with
1μm thick Teflon® to reduce friction between the droplet and
the glass substrate. The width and spacing of the ITO
electrodes was 50μm. The mass density of the sealing liquid
was adjusted to match that of the droplet to minimize the
gravitational effect, since the gravitational effect may induce
no uniform deformation of the droplet profile, causing optical
aberrations. As the voltage was applied, a dielectric force
arose on the droplet due to the difference in the dielectric
constant between the two liquids. The dielectric force shrunk
the droplet, increasing the droplet's contact angle and
shortening the focal length of the liquid lens. The dielectric
force induced is described by equation given below

where ε0 is the permittivity of free space, ε1 and ε2 are

dielectric constants of the sealing liquid and the droplet,
respectively. E denotes the electric field intensity across the
interface of the two liquids

10
 ( fig. A typical liquid lens)

Electro wetting Principle:

11
 This principle states that whenever no voltage is applied to the drop
of liquid then it is “phobic “of the surface. As the voltage increases
the liquid wets the surface more.
This principle helps in adjusting the lens which can make the lens to
behave like concave & convex as per the requirement.
Two non miscible liquids of same density instead of having a
water drop in air, one works with water and oil. This condition is
necessary for suppressing any optical distortion of the gravity on
the liquid-liquid interface, which enables to use the lens in every
orientation.

• Inversion of the conducting and non conducting fluid. In current

electrowetting experiments, the water is used as a drop immersed in

12
the non conducting fluid (air). For application, it will be preferable to
work with a drop of the insulating fluid (oil) immersed in the
conducting fluid (water). This is to avoid any optical perturbation of
the liquid-liquid interface due to the liquid meniscus at the electrode
touching the conducting fluid. It is preferable to use an oil drop
immersed into a conducting fluid (water based solution) which can be
connected to the outside without perturbing the liquid—liquid
interface. This inversion is not strictly necessary, as in former
publications it is mentioned that contact could be made through the
insulating . Nevertheless, in practical realization the inversion of oil
and water is preferable.
• Centering mean : some publications have mentioned in the past
how to use small liquid droplets as optical lenses [6], but if this lens
has to be inserted in a more complex system, it needs precise
alignments of optical lenses. The fig 1 shows that if no centering
mean is applied, the drop can freely move in the transverse
directions while the focal length is changed.
We have the experience of such random displacements which
prevent to use the lens. The liquid-liquid interface thus needs then to
be precisely controlled and any physical realization of lenses have to
incorporate such a centering mean This centering of the liquid-liquid
interface can be obtained by several ways. The following are given
as example, and many others can be found:

13
• applying electric field gradient using variable thickness of the
insulator film.
• the natural gradient present at the edge of an electrode can be
used. In the case of lenses developed by Lucent, a decentering force
can be applied through angular sector electrodes. Such decent ring
force can only be used if a centering force (restoring force) exists,
such that the balance between the decentering forces and the
centering forces can bring a stable equilibrium. Although this was not
explicitly discussed in the publications of Lucent, we believe that in
their case the centering effect comes either from the edge effect of
the ring electrode, or from the gap between sector electrodes, which
could play this role too, if well designed.

it can also be obtained as a result of the geometry of the supporting

surface for the two fluids. It has been shown that inwards cones,
cylinder and some toroidal shapes are centering surfaces for the
liquid-liquid interface. Cylinder the contrary, some surfaces having an
inward high insides and cylinder edges have also been proposed. On
curvature are not suited for centering the liquid-liquid interface.

14
WORKING DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
CONVENTIONAL & LIQUID LENS

• Liquid lens working like human eye. So here we

compare conventional lens with human eye.

15
 Lens characterizations:

The optical characteristic of the liquid lens that were measured

experimentally included the droplet's contact angle and its hysteresis,
the conic constant of the droplet, focal length tuning, and focal spot
size. Further, focal length tuning, focal spot size and spherical
aberration were verified using simulation tools and theory. The
contact angle of the droplet in the packaged liquid lens was
measured at various voltages as shown in Figure 2(a). The intrinsic
contact angle of the droplet was measured to be 25°. The contact

16
angle began to significantly increase at voltages over 50 volts and
reached 58° at 200 volts. Hysteresis of the droplet's contact angle
was observed and its maximum was found to be 12.5° at 120 volts.
Figure 2(b) shows that the conic constants of the droplet were close
to zero at various voltages, implying that the droplet maintained a
spherical profile at all focal lengths. Hence, the surface profile of the
droplet could be assumed to be spherical during actuation. The
actuation of the droplet in the liquid lens was captured by a high-
speed CCD camera. The rise time was measured to be about 650ms
when the liquid lens was actuated from the rest state to 200 volts.
When the applied voltage was switched off, the measured fall time
was 300ms.
Fig. The measured receding contact angles and advancing contact
angles of the droplet in a liquid lens versus the applied voltages. The
insets show the droplets actuated at various voltages. Left: the
droplet was at the rest state. Right: the droplet was actuated at 200V.

17
Focal length measurement of the liquid lens was conducted using a laser
with a wavelength of 532nm and a beam scanner (0180-
XY/LL/SW/1μm/5Hz, Photon Inc.).
The focal length was determined for advancing actuation based on the
minimum spot size resolved along the optic axis. Further, the measured
advancing focal lengths were compared with the paraxial approximation
based on the advancing contact angles in Fig. 2. The measurement
results and the paraxial approximation were in good agreement (see Fig.
3). When the voltage increased from zero to 200 volts, the liquid lens
shortened its focal length from 34mm to 12mm. The electric power
consumed was determined to be less than 1mW.
Features:

18
Applications:

Applications of the liquid lenses based on electro wetting can be

found in many areas. Typical possible sizes for the lens pupil range
from less than a millimeter to one centimeter, using the current
technology. This makes this technology ideal for millimetrtic lenses
needed now in the mobile phone applications. The very small power
consumption (less than one mW dissipated in the lens) is also a
great advantage compared to conventional motorized systems. All
electronic sets integrating optics could benefit from the simplicity of
this technology. Optical pickups, displays, cameras, computers etc...
Again the size under consideration is well fitted between macro- and
microscopic systems. Of course photonic professional applications
could also present good opportunities for our technology. Many other
applications could be envisaged. The liquid ends

19
is one adaptive optical components, with a huge amplitude, but
rather limited flexibility on the pattern of phase shifts, limited to what
can be done with a liquid liquid interface. Directly every application
where Z scanning is required could be of interest: the dynamic
behavior shown in this paper demonstrates s possible to apply to the
lens a triangular ramp (eventually damped in order to avoid shocks
generated at the reversing of the ramp) in order to use the full range
of dioptric correction upon very fast scans. Telemetry could use
focus information in order to produce 2D and 3D images at quite
good resolutions. Medical applications could also be very promising,
as endoscopes develop on many complex optical functions including
confocal microscopy or Optical Coherent Tomography .

20
 As a final remark, lasers could be monitored or controlled by the
liquid lens.
Liquids can sometimes produce interesting properties as materials,
which could be of use, even in high power pulsed laser systems.
It has
Dyamic field of view.
Easy to mass produce: manufactured using lithography.
Difficulties:
Far from being a fully developed product.

Lens for cameras:

21
Varioptic and Sunny Optics
announced last week that they were
making the Varioptic Arctic 416 auto
focus oil and water lens available in
high-end camera phones. The oil
and water lens, which has no moving
parts, replaces traditional
mechanical lens focusing systems.
(Oil and water lens uses
electrowetting)
The Varioptic oil and water lens uses a phenomenon called
"electrowetting" to focus the system. A water droplet is deposited
on a metal substrate covered by an insulating layer. The voltage
applied to the substrate modifies the contact angle of the droplet.
A liquid lens uses two liquids with the same density; one is an
insulator while the other is a conductor. The variation of voltage
leads to a change of curvature of the liquid-liquid interface, which
in turn leads to a change of the focal length of the lens.
Liquid lenses have many advantages over their mechanical
counterparts, including ruggedness (no moving parts), faster
response, excellent optical quality, wide operating temperature

22
range and very low energy consumption (ideal for small mobile
devices). Science fiction fans have been waiting for this since
Frank Herbert wrote about oil lenses in his 1964 classic Dune:
Paul lay ... in a slit of rock high on the shield wall rim, eye fixed to
the collector of a Fremen telescope. The oil lens was focused on a
starship lighter exposed by dawn in the basin below them.
(Read more about oil lens from Dune)
Philips is also working on this technology (there may be some
patent fights involved); see Philips FluidFocus: Variable Focus
Fluid Lens. Varioptic is ramping up production in (where else)
Shanghai and expects to produce 100,000 lenses per month in
addition to the production in its plant in Lyon, France. Read more
in the 2MP Autofocus Camera Module with Varioptic Liquid Lens
press release and Varioptic comes into focus with liquid phone
camera lenses. Scroll down for more stories in the same category.
(Story submitted 2/18/2007) .
Schreiber and colleagues worked with Varioptic, French pioneers
of liquid lenses, to come up with a design that switches from a
normal view to 2.5-times magnification. The design consists of four
liquid lenses and three fixed plastic lenses and offers a
magnification of 2.5 times, while when all four lenses are at their
flattest there is no magnification.

23
“The complete length of the system from outer lens to image
sensor is 29mm, but it should be possible to reduce that,” says
Schreiber. Varioptic is now considering how to take the design on
to then prototype stage.
“The lenses are arranged to prevent image distortion while
minimising colour distortion. Red, green and blue images must be
recorded in sequence and then combined digitally, a process that
would increase exposure times,” says Schreiber, “finding less
distorting liquids to build the lenses out of is the answer to that
problem.”So although it potentially sounds like great news, this is
probably another new technology which won’t find its way into
DSLR cameras for a few years yet. For smaller lenses such as
camera phones it could find a market, but we’ll have to see how
this one pans out.

24
 Conclusion:

We might have seen in digital cameras that when it becomes on or

captures or zooms the lens make two and fro. This is done by the
internal motor inside the camera. This lens uses most of the power
of the camera. But now-a-days we
want to save power as much as
possible. So, here liquid lens shows its
ability. It needs very less power as
compared to the typical motor driven
lens. So, it may be the best alternative
of typical motor driven lens.But the
problem is that as liquids are used so
there may be problem in the extreme conditions.Major camera
production companies like Canon, Nikon & cell phone company
Sony Ericson have already tested and might be in the final process
to apply.
IMRE has made a breakthrough in lens technology. The lens is
cheaper to make has optical zooming abilities and uses only a
fraction of the space of most conventional lenses are called as
fluidlens or liquidlens. In the past 2-3 decades, the need for
miniaturization of optical systems has increased dramatically,
especially incoherent light handling, for various applications

25
including communications, data storage, security or personal
identification. More recently this trend has extended to imaging
systems. Nowadays camera modules, integrating a digital sensor
and an optical system altogether, have entered into mobile
phones and slim digital cameras, bringing the need for develop in
miniature optical systems.
The camera module were developed first with low count pixels
and ultra small format sensors (CIF resolution, single element
lens), but the need for better image quality leads now to the
development of mega pixels sensors, 1/4” or less. These sensors
are now commercially available, but the need for auto focus and
zoom compound lenses remains open: no commercial solution
exists up to now at reasonable prices for this very large scale
market. The liquid lens technology that we present here could be
the solution to this demanding application. By using molecular
simulations The structure of interface between liquid layers and
molecular arranges have been understood. The chemical
reaction and by-products were predicted. By modifying the liquid
ensemble composition of the interface depth decreased. The
transmissivity after high-temperature aging improved.
The aforementioned liquid-formed lenses are a cool technology as
well, and used mostly on image sensors. Tiny drops of epoxy are
placed on each pixel, which then form individual lenses to increase

26
light-capturing ability. They are also used on novelty items to
create a magnifying effect.

Reference:.
 B. Berge and J. Peseux; "Variable focal lens controlled by
an external voltage: an application of electrowetting”.
 Howstuffworks.com
 Electronictech.com
 Nikoncameras.com

27