We present the design, fabrication, and response of a polymer-based Laterally Amplified Chemo-Mechanical (LACM) humidity sensor based on mechanical leveraging and parametric amplification. The device consists of a sense cantilever asymmetrically patterned with a polymer and flanked by two stationary electrodes on the sides. When exposed to a humidity change, the polymer swells after absorbing the analyte and causes the central cantilever to bend laterally towards one side, causing a change in the measured capacitance. The device features an intrinsic gain due to parametric amplification resulting in an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Eleven-fold magnification in sensor response was observed via voltage biasing of the side electrodes without the use of conventional electronic amplifiers. The sensor showed a repeatable and recoverable capacitance change of 11% when exposed to a change in relative humidity from 25–85%. The dynamic characterization of the device also revealed a response time of ~1 s and demonstrated a competitive response with respect to a commercially available reference chip.

Liquid-filled tunable-focus lenses have been demonstrated to be suitable for autofocus eyewear applications. Traditionally, these lenses are constructed using an elastomeric polymer chamber filled with a high-index liquid. In this work, we investigate the effect of elastomeric creep on the deformation and eventual degradation of these tunable lenses. We use numerical analysis of a deformable circular disk representative of the lens and provide rigorous experimental results testing the creep property of a number of elastomers. Finally, we provide a comparative study of different elastomeric materials and select the best one for this application. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America

Absorbance-modulation-optical lithography (AMOL) uses the opposing reactions between two isomeric states (absorbing and transparent) of a photochrome to confine light to sub-diffraction limited dimensions. The extent of light confinement is controlled by the ratio of the intensities of the confining and the exposing beams. Traditionally, high intensity in the confining beam is required due to the low quantum yield of the corresponding photo-reaction. Here, we report AMOL using low-light intensities, enabled by a novel photochrome with well-matched quantum yields. We provide rigorous simulations and experiments to demonstrate ∼ λ/4.5 feature-sizes at approximately 1/4^th the light intensities required in conventional AMOL.

We demonstrate a high-NA (0.88), ultra-low-f-number (f/0.2714), multi-wavelength (480nm, 550nm and 650nm) multilevel diffractive MicroLens Array (MLA) using inverse design. Each microlens in the array is close-packed with diameter of 70 μm and focal length of only 19 μm in air. The MLA was patterned on one surface of a polymer film via UV casting, such that the focal plane was located on the distal end of the film (n of polymer ~ 1.47, thickness = 28 μm, effective f/# (NA) inside polymer ~ 0.4 (0.78)). Each microlens focuses incident light at 3 design wavelengths into a focal spot with measured full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) < 1 μm. By placing this MLA directly on a high-resolution print, we demonstrated RGB integral imaging with applications in document security. Compared to refractive MLAs, our diffractive MLA reduces the thickness by > 3X, which is advantageous for manufacturability. Since these multi-level diffractive MLAs are fabricated using UV-casting, they have the potential for low-cost, high-volume manufacturing.