Design and fabrication of long focal length microlens arrays

In this paper, we present microlens arrays (MLA) with long focal length (in millimeter range) based on thermal reflow process. The focal length of microlens is usually in the same order of lens diameter or several hundred microns. To extend focal length, we made a photoresist (SU-8) MLA covered by a Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film on a glass substrate. Because the refractive index difference between PDMS and photoresist interface is lower than that of air and MLA interface, light is less bended when passing through MLA and is focused at longer distance. Microlenses of diameters from 50 μm to 240 μm were successfully fabricated. The longest focal length was 2.1 mm from the microlens of 240 μm diameter. The numerical aperture (NA) was reduced 0.06, which is much lower than the smallest NA (~ 0.15) by regular thermal reflow processes. Cured PDMS has high transmittance and becomes parts of MLA without too much optical power loss. Besides, other focal lengths can be realized by modifying the refractive index different between two adjacent materials as described in this paper.