A bio-inspired cylindrical lens based on reflection from an array of micro-mirrors fabricated on a cylindrical flexible substrate

Most optical systems utilize refractive lenses to focus light. These lenses have low transmission and suffer chromatic aberration because the refractive index is a function of wavelength. Focusing light by reflective curved surfaces (e.g., spherical mirrors) could address these two issues. However, this is hard to implement in micro-optical systems since the imager, with similar dimensions to other components, would inherently be on the same side of the curved mirror as the light source, thus blocking the incoming light. Some natural visual systems, however, rely on a configuration of distributed mirrors to focus light [1]. Inspired by such systems, we designed and realized a cylindrical lens based on reflection from an array of micro-mirrors fabricated on a cylindrical flexible substrate.