Abstract

Miniature lenses can readily transform commercial systems such as smartphones into high quality and high power microscopes. To date, the fabrication of such lenses reproducibility is still a challenge. In this talk, we present two novel and unconventional approaches to fabricate miniature elastomer lenses and transform a smartphone into a microscope. The first approach is on fabrication of spherical lenses using the spherical surface of a liquid as mold with programmable curvature. The second approach is on fabrication of aspherical lenses using a dip-and-bake approach. Further, we demonstrate the ability of the developed smartphone microscope to image biological cells and tissues such as malaria infection in human blood. We also explore the possibility of using these lenses to identify fake Indian currency notes in ambient light.