Liquid-crystal microlens arrays driven addressably by electric-scanning signals

Approaches for realizing a small scale tunable liquid-crystal microlens array (LCMLA) with several independent driving channels of applying voltage signal has been investigated in recent year. However, current requirements based on electrically tuning focus function are further increasing array scale of LCMLA and continuously improving driving efficiency of electric-signal setup so as to acquire more optical information of objects. The conventional point-to-point electrically driving (PTPED) method, which has disadvantages such as high power dissipation, lots of external wirings connections, and complicated electric-structure matching, cannot be used to accomplish a real-time independent driving control of arbitrary electrode end in a patterned electrode array of a LCMLA. In this paper, an addressably electric-scanning driving (ESD) approach for a 4×4 zoned LCMLA with sixteen electrode zone divided so as to reduce the number of driving signal lines, is proposed. Simultaneously, key functions such as the amplitude and frequency of a square-wave voltage signal for driving arbitrary electrode with needed RMS voltage value, which can be programmable processed so as to independently control zoned electrodes, can be effectively achieved. The principle of ESD of LCMLA, the simulation and design of hardware circuit, and the fabrication of ESD device are presented. According to our experiences in LCMLA, the ESD approach will exhibit possibility for construction and application of large-scale LCMLA. Besides, scene scanning automatically and three-dimension object reconstruction based on addressable LCMAL with multi-focuses is also predicted.