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nanotimes News in Brief

11-01 :: December 2010 / January 2011

Optics // Microscopically Small Nanostructured Arrays of Lenses

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icroscopically small nanostructured arrays of lenses that can record or project amazingly

sharp images in brilliant colors are being demonstra- ted by Fraunhofer research scientists at the nano tech 2011 trade show in Tokyo from February 16 to 18.

Fraunhofer exhibition stand at nano tech 2011 will be produced by a luminous cube. The prototype of the new projector consists of an optical system just eleven millimeters square and three millimeters thick through which a powerful LED lamp shines. The images are amazingly sharp, the colors brilliant – all thanks to micro and nanotechnology. “The special thing about the new projection technology is that the image is already integrated in the microoptics. The pixels measuring just a hundred nanometers or so are stored in a chromium layer under the lens array. Such a microarray has around 250 microlenses, and under each lens there is a microimage. When all of them are projected onto the wall together, a high- quality complete image is produced from an extre- mely small projector,” explains Marcel Sieler, physi- cist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena.

A special material composition has been developed by researchers at ISC for the manufacture of the mi- crolens arrays used in all these applications. Organic carbon-hydrogen and oxygen compounds are en- veloped in an inorganic matrix of silicon oxide or

The luminous cube is the prototype of the new projector. © Fraunhofer IOF, Germany

titanium oxide. This prevents the embedded plastics from changing chemically over the course of time. Such ORMOCER® thermal loadings.

Contact: Mr. Michael Popall, Fraunhofer ISC in Wuerz- burg, Germany: http://www.isc.fraunhofer.de

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