• Tunable lens

The work carried on during my Master Thesis project consists in the realization of an electrically tunable solid body lens, integrated with an annular dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) working as an artificial muscle. For the realization of the device, I intended to exploit the working principle as well as the advantages of compactness, fast operation and shock tolerance introduced by the tunable lens based on DEAs. On the other hand, I substituted the fluid-filled elastomeric lens with a solid body lens, which is less susceptible to fluctuations in temperature, pressure and motion than liquid-based lenses and constitutes a more robust approach to tunable optical systems.
The device developed in the research project is made of an elastomeric acrilic membrane (VHB 4910, 3M), a solid body silicon lens (Encapso K, Smooth On) sticked in the center of the membrane with two different production methods and a compliant Electrode Material connected to a voltage source.
From the experimental results obtained, it emerged that the solid-body lens had a deformation comparable with the liquid lens while reaching a variation of the focal length with the voltage up to about 40%.