Angle Tunable Liquid Wedge Prism


 

We proposed a wedge prism which is tunable by electrowetting actuation. The wedge prism is useful for a small camera or an endoscope, because the wedge prism is capable of changing the view without a large instrument. Our prism consists of two plates facing each other and liquid sandwiched between the plates. By changing the angle between the two plates, the liquid and the two plates form into the wedge shape. We used electrowetting to change the angle of the prism. The wedge prism keeps the size small, since the liquid driven by electrowetting works as a prism. In addition, the prism keeps the view clear because the optical flatness of the wedge prism is determined by the flatness of the two plates. In this research, we achieved the wedge prism with which we can shift the field of view to the right and the left.

References :
Atsushi Takei, Kazunori Hoshino, Kiyoshi Matsumoto, Isao Shimoyama, “Angle Tunable Liquid Wedge Prism Driven by Electro-Wetting,” 19th International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS '06), pp. 122-125, Istanbul, Turkey, January 22-26, 2006. [Proceedings]