Conclusions and outlook

We have developed a new method of localized contact deposition for manufacturing polymer microlenses of high optical quality and dimensions compatible with VCSEL beam shaping.

This new technique has been applied to VCSEL collimation, exploiting the self-aligning properties of lenses on predefined SU-8 cylindrical patterns. The development of customized integrated microlenses will be pursued for this type of laser source, as well as for matrix detectors.

Our microlenses are based on a "natural" contact angle between resin and SU-8. We can imagine engineering this contact angle from physically structured or chemically modified surfaces, which would make it possible on the one hand to collectively localize the lenses and on the other to control the radius of curvature of the manufactured lens. Studies are currently underway in this field....