Adaptive Lens with Deformable Membrane for Real-Time Focusing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional adjustable lenses for mobile phone cameras are too expensive, non-tunable, and lack real-time focusing capabilities, often requiring additional lenses for magnification, which increases cost and spatial requirements, and suffer from manufacturing complexities and low reliability due to the use of liquids.
Innovation Solution
A compact adjustable lens assembly featuring a deformable, non-fluid lens body sandwiched between a transparent back window and a pre-shaped, flexible membrane, with an actuator system that changes the lens's shape to adjust optical power, eliminating the need for liquids and reducing thickness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional glass lenses are used, then optical quality is maintained, but cost increases and focusing capability is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by making the lens body deformable through a soft polymer material that can change its curvature in real-time. The lens transitions from a static glass structure to a dynamic soft polymer structure that can adjust its shape via electrostatic forces, stretching, or surface shaping, enabling focusing capability while maintaining optical quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs parameter changes by modifying the physical state and properties of the lens material from rigid glass to soft polymer. This allows the lens to change its optical parameters (curvature, focal length) dynamically. The graded refractive index approach further utilizes parameter changes to achieve focusing without mechanical movement.
2Adaptability or versatility
If soft polymer lenses are used with electrostatic forces or stretching, then focusing capability is achieved, but manufacturing complexity and surface quality deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-shaping the soft polymer lens during manufacturing to achieve the desired initial curvature and optical properties. This pre-shaping process eliminates the need for complex post-manufacturing adjustments and simplifies the overall manufacturing process while ensuring high surface quality from the start.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces complex mechanical stretching and shaping systems with simpler electrostatic forces or field-based actuation methods. This substitution reduces mechanical complexity in the manufacturing process while maintaining the ability to achieve precise lens shapes and surface qualities.
3Adaptability or versatility
If liquid is used in a cavity to adjust focal length, then focusing capability is achieved, but device complexity and reliability worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the liquid cavity component from the lens system. Instead of using liquid in a cavity to adjust focal length, the invention uses a solid soft polymer lens body that can be directly actuated by electrostatic forces or field effects. This removal of the liquid cavity significantly simplifies the device structure and improves reliability by eliminating leakage and sealing issues.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the complex liquid-filled cavity system with a simpler, solid-state soft polymer lens that can be manufactured more cheaply and reliably. The soft polymer lens achieves the same focusing capability without requiring sealed cavities, liquid filling procedures, or complex pressure control mechanisms.
4Power
If additional lenses are added for magnification, then optical power is increased, but cost and spatial requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by designing a single soft polymer lens that can perform multiple functions: it provides both the primary optical power and dynamic focusing capability that would traditionally require separate lenses. The lens can adjust its focal length continuously, replacing the need for multiple fixed-focus lenses and magnification elements in the optical system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses dynamics to enable a single lens to provide variable optical power through real-time shape adjustment. The soft polymer lens can change its curvature and focal length dynamically, replacing static multi-lens systems with a single adaptive element that achieves the same optical effects with reduced complexity and smaller size.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides a cost-effective, compact, and reliable lens with real-time focusing capabilities, maintaining optical quality and reducing manufacturing complexity by using a deformable membrane and actuator system, allowing for dynamic focus adjustment and aberration correction around any optical power.
Implementation Method 1
a deformable, non-fluid lens body sandwiched between a transparent back window and a transparent, flexible membrane
Data Source
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Figure 3A~3B
Figure 4A~7A
AI summary
The invention relates to a tunable lens where the optical power can be adjusted. The lens consists of a deformable, non-fluid lens body sandwiched between a thin, flexible membrane and transparent back window, and an actuator system serving to change the overall shape of the membrane and lens body. The membrane is pre-shaped to have a Sag or Sagittal of at least 10 µm so that the lens has a non- zero optical power when the actuator system is not activated. In order to achieve a large optical power range for the lens, the membrane should preferably be made of a material having a Young's modulus in the range 2 - 1.000 MPa.