Homogeneous LED-illumination using microlens arrays

Efficient homogeneous illumination of rectangular or circular areas with LEDs is a promising application for double-sided microlens arrays. Such illumination schemes employ a primary optics - which can be realized with a concentrator or a collimation lens - and a secondary optics with one or more double-sided microlens arrays and a collection optics for superposing the light from the individual array channels. The main advantage of this design is the achievable short system length compared to integrating lightpipe designs with subsequent relay optics. We describe design rules for the secondary optics derived from simple ABCD-matrix formalism. Based on these rules, sequential raytracing is used for the actual optics system design. Double-sided arrays are manufactured by polymer-on-glass replication of reflow lenses. With cylindrical lens arrays we assembled high-brightness RGB-illumination systems for rectangular areas. Hexagonal packed double-sided arrays of spherical lenslets were applied for a miniaturized circular spotlight. Black matrix polymer apertures attached to the lens array helped to avoid unwanted straylight.