Dielectric liquid lens with chevron-patterned electrode

A dielectric liquid lens driven using a chevron-patterned electrode is prepared. The bending angle of the electrode is 90 degrees. This electrode can effectively and symmetrically deform the surface profile of the lens, which in turn leads to a variable focus. For a 3-mm-diameter lens, a driving voltage changed from 0 to 52 V can vary its focal length from ~19.3 to ~4.9 mm. Using a 40-Vrms pulse voltage to impact the lens, the dynamic response time is ~6.7s. The response time can be largely reduced if a step voltage is used to impact the liquid lens. Multiple lenses can be driven at the same time and the driving voltage is insensitive to the size of the lens. Owing to the chevron-patterned electrode and the competitive features, our lens has promising applications in imaging, sensing, biometrics, and other photonics devices.