Miniature Lenses

There are a number of technological applications that use miniature lenses in which the lens diameter is a few millimeters, and typically smaller than 10 mm. For lens systems that employ such miniature lenses, several advantages result because of the scale. For a given lens form and, except for distortion, the aberrations scale down, while the wavelength of light remains the same. Given that lens volume is small, a wider possibility of lens materials becomes possible due to cost or material limitations. Lens weight is reduced, as well as dimensional changes due to temperature. Further, very thick lenses can be used in some applications. However, lens tolerances for lens thickness and decenter become tighter. Many microscope objectives, lenses for endoscopes, and lenses for mobile phones are in the category of miniature lenses. This chapter provides a discussion about lens design for mobile phones lenses.