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A finite-element model (FEM) is employed to study the pressure response of deformable elastic mem-
branes used as tunable optical elements. The model is capable of determining in situ both the modulus
and the prestrain from a measurement of peak deflection versus pressure. Given accurate values for
modulus and prestrain, it is shown that the two parameters of a standard optical shape function (radius
of curvature and conic constant) can be accurately predicted. The effects of prestrain in polydimethylsi-
loxane (PDMS) membranes are investigated in detail. It was found that prestrain reduces the sensitivity
of the membrane shape to the details of the edge clamping. It also reduces the variation of the conic
constant with changes in curvature. Thus the ability to control the prestrain as well as thickness
and modulus is important to developing robust optical designs based on fluid-driven polymer lenses.
2008 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: 310.6805, 160.5470.
p 40 h 0 0 h
1; 1 : 2a
E 1 a a a a
p 46 28 182 h 0 3 0
large : 2b
E 211 2 a a a
Fig. 6. (Color online) (a) Best fit of FEM result of peak deflection
(0 ) as a function of applied pressure (p) (red solid curve) as com-
pared with the experimentally measured data (squares). Two
other FEM curves of 0 p using different moduli and prestrains
are also plotted to show the influence of these two parameters on
the 0 p data. (b) FEM predicted deformation profiles (black solid
curves) under various high pressure levels, compared with the ex-
perimentally measured deformation (curves with high-frequency
undulations). (c) Comparison of FEM predicted deformations
(black solid curves) with experimental measurements (curves with
undulations) at lower pressure levels.
the PDMS_EB samples. In the normalized plot the of p=E, before they become unstable. Note that, even
differences in initial slope reflect the differences in at large p=E values, the numerical predictions are
0 as described by Eq. (2a). A quick calculation using not completely identical to experimental results.
the normalized initial slopes gives prestrains of 0.4%
for PDMS_EB2, 1.7% for PDMS_2, and 2.3% for
PDMS_HT1, which are in excellent agreement with
the numerically obtained values.
Using the E and 0 values derived from the 0 ver-
sus p data, FEM simulations of the membranes at
different pressure levels were performed. These were
then fitted with the standard conic surface, and
values of radii of curvature and conic constants were
obtained and compared with the experimental
values. Figure 8(a) shows the comparisons of normal-
ized radius, R=a, as a function of normalized pres-
sure p=E. The predicted R=a versus p=E relation is
remarkably successful. The numerical results (solid
curves) are almost identical to the experimental
curves (dotted curve with symbols). Note the rela-
tively large difference between samples PDMS_2
and PDMS_HT1, despite the fact that their 0 versus
p curves are almost identical (Fig. 7(a)).
The predicted K versus p=E curves are shown in
Fig. 8(b). The predictions follow experimental curves
over a large range of p=E, but the agreement in the
small p=E range is plagued by the large oscillation of
experimental data. There are two reasons for the
lack of consistency of experimental fitting. The first
is noise in the data. At small pressures and deforma-
tions, the fractional errors in pressure and height in-
crease (p error 0:14 KPa), as can be seen from
Fig. 6(c). Also, since K represents the deviation from
a spherical shape, it is a second-order effect, and the
fitting becomes increasingly unstable for a flat
surface.
From Fig. 8(b), the effect of 0 on the K versus R=a
relation is clearly seen. Of the three samples,
PDMS_HT1 has the largest prestrain (0 2:4%),
and K remains nearly constant with a value of about
Fig. 8. (Color online) (a) Comparison of FEM predicted (solid
2.5 over a fairly large range of p=E. This is a desirable curves) and experimentally measured (symbols) normalized ra-
condition, since, in developing a multielement vari- dius of curvature (R=a) as functions of normalized pressure
able design, a changing K value can be problematic (p=E) for the three membranes with different mechanical proper-
for optimization. As the level of prestrain decreases, ties. (b) Conic constant K predicted (solid) and extracted from ex-
the K values, in general, increase with the decrease perimental measurements (symbols).
A. Effects of Prestrain
If the Youngs modulus is known, it is possible to
quickly extract the prestrain level in a polymer mem-
The existence of prestrain is actually beneficial to brane of a given geometry (i.e., known h=a) from the
the optical performance of thin-film polymer mem- measured 0 p data [e.g., Fig. 7(a)]. This can be
branes because it helps to reduce the negative in- done through measuring the initial slope in the
fluence of boundary conditions on the deformed small-deformation range. If the membrane thickness
membrane profile (Fig. 5(a)). The deformed lens is very small (h=a 1), the initial slope is directly
profile with prestrain is closer to a spherical shape, related to the prestrain by Eq. (2a). With E known,
which is typically assumed in optical lens design. the prestrain can be quickly assessed by
Further, the prestrain helps to maintain a near-
constant value of K within a large pressure range
(Figs. 5(b) and 8(b)), which will greatly facilitate 1 a a
0 ; 5
optical design of polymer membranes. 4 h kE
Another important benefit of prestrain is that it will
lead to much improved pressure sensitivity (p=0 ) of where k 0 =p is the initial slope of the 0 p curve.
polymer membranes in the small-deformation re- Unfortunately, for most thin polymer membranes the
gime. Pressure sensitivity is important for the accu- elastic modulus itself is, strictly speaking, unknown.
rate control for variable-field-of-view applications. Nevertheless, the bulk modulus of the polymer mem-
According to Eqs. (2a) and (2b) and as clearly shown brane may be used for a quick, back-of-the-envelope
in Fig 7(b), at small deformation p=E is proportional to estimate of the prestrain in the membrane.
0 . However, it is noted that the prestrain effect fades Also, note that at large deformations (0 =a > 1) the
away gradually as membrane deformation increases 0 p relation is independent of the prestrain
(0 =a increases), which means there is no extra bur- [Eq. (2b)]. This feature can be used, in theory, to cal-
den for pressure increase in the small-field-of-view culate the Youngs modulus (E) of a polymer mem-
operating regime. This is preferable to other pressure brane. However, few polymer membranes can
sensitivity enhancement methods, such as increasing survive such a large deformation without bursting.
membrane modulus or thickness. At the deformation level involved in this study,
Increasing the modulus of a polymer membrane 0 =a 0:2, it is readily seen that the membrane mod-
will improve the pressure sensitivity in the small- uli obtained (as listed in the parentheses in Table 2)
deformation regime. However, the increased modulus are typically overestimated by a factor of about 23
requires a proportionally increased pressure to (assuming a fixed Poissons ratio of 0.48).
achieve the same deformation for large deformations,
which could be an extra burden for a miniature lens C. Optical Design with Considerations of Prestrain
system. This can be illustrated using the PDMS_HT1 In almost all of the previously reported fluid-driven
and PDMS_EB2 curves shown in Fig. 7(a). The mod- polymer lens designs, it was implicitly assumed that