Biologically inspired ultrathin arrayed camera for high-contrast and high-resolution imaging

Compound eyes found in insects provide intriguing sources of biological inspiration for miniaturised imaging systems. Here, we report an ultrathin arrayed camera inspired by insect eye structures for high-contrast and super-resolution imaging. The ultrathin camera features micro-optical elements (MOEs), i.e., inverted microlenses, multilayered pinhole arrays, and gap spacers on an image sensor. The MOE was fabricated by using repeated photolithography and thermal reflow. The fully packaged camera shows a total track length of 740 mu m and a field-of-view (FOV) of 73 degrees. The experimental results demonstrate that the multilayered pinhole of the MOE allows high-contrast imaging by eliminating the optical crosstalk between microlenses. The integral image reconstructed from array images clearly increases the modulation transfer function (MTF) by 1.57 times compared to that of a single channel image in the ultrathin camera. This ultrathin arrayed camera provides a novel and practical direction for diverse mobile, surveillance or medical applications.