Bio-inspired Micro-Optical Imaging for Biomedical Applications

Optical detection and imaging have wide applications. With continuing miniaturization effort to realizeintegrated microsystems, the importance of micro-scale optical components becomes more and more prominent  On the other... [ view full abstract ]

Optical detection and imaging have wide applications. With continuing miniaturization effort to realizeintegrated microsystems, the importance of micro-scale optical components becomes more and more prominent  On the other hand, natural visualization systems provide many intriguing optical designs and unique properties, which serve as a greatsource of inspiration for micro-optical devices and systems. This paper presents some work on bio-inspired micro-scale components and resultant imaging systems. Various types of microlenses and microlens arrays are introduced, such as tunable liquid microlenses actuated by temperature-, pH- and infrared light-responsive hydrogels, and those through electrowetting and dielectric force.