An artificial compound eyes imaging system based on MEMS technology

This paper introduces an artificial compound eyes imaging system with planar structure based on MEMS fabrication technology. Firstly, we used the photo-resist reflow method to fabricate a 9×9 microlens array on a planar glass substrate, as the lenses of the compound eyes. Its transverse size is 0.9 × 0.9 cm² and thickness is about 0.7 mm. Then we built an imaging system where object images are captured by the micro-lens array using a CMOS camera. In the experiment, the imaging system is used to view a character ¿A¿. It is found that each microlens can image the character ¿A¿ effectively. As a result, a 9 × 9 multiple-image is captured in the CMOS camera. Finally, the object image is reconstructed from the multiple-image by digital process algorithm. The experimental results indicate that our system can effectively imitate the imaging mechanism of the compound eyes.