Compound eyes inspire miniature lenses with greater scope

Their new approach is claimed to have created the first-ever flexible Fresnel zone plate microlenses with a wide field of view, a development with applications ranging from surgical scopes to security cameras to capture a broader perspective at a fraction of the size required by conventional lenses.

Led by Hongrui Jiang, professor of electrical and computer engineering at UW-Madison, the researchers designed lenses no larger than the head of a pin and embedded them within flexible plastic. An array of the miniature lenses rolled into a cylinder can capture a panorama image covering a 170-degree field of view.

“We got the idea from compound eyes,” says Jiang, whose work has been published in Scientific Reports. “We know that multiple lenses on a domed structure give a large field of view.”

The researchers can also reconfigure the shape of the lens array through the use of Fresnel zone plates, which focus by diffraction.

According to UW-Madison, each of Jiang’s half-millimetre diameter lenses resembles a series of ripples on water emanating out from the splash of a stone. In bull’s-eye fashion, each concentric ring alternates between bright and dark. The distance between the rings determines the optical properties of the lens, and the researchers can tune those properties in a single lens by stretching and flexing it.