title: Lateral flow through a parallel gap driven by surface hydrophilicity and liquid edge pinning for creating microlens array.
abstract: This letter proposes a surface-energy driven process for economically creating polymer microlens array (MLA) with well controllable curvatures. When a UV-curable prepolymer flows into a cell constructed by multiple holes on a top template and a flat substrate, since the edge pinning of the contact line, an array of curved air/prepolymer interface forms around each microhole of the template. Then a UV-radiation of the bulk prepolymer leads to a solid microlens array. The curvature of the air/prepolymer interface can be controlled by choosing materials with different interface free energy or varying the gap height mechanically.
authors.affiliation: Micro-/Nano-technology Research Center State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University , 28 West Xianning Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049, China.
authors.forename: Chengbao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Xiangming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Hongmiao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Chunhui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jinyou
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.forename: Yucheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: hydrophilicity; liquid pinning; microlens array; micromolding; surface energy