Additive manufacturing (AM) and rapid prototyping process (RPP) have revolutionized the production of 3D objects in the last few decades. RPP has considerably increased the rate of production and the possibility of manufacturing prototypes in the fields of electrical, optical, and mechanical engineering. The manufacturing of optical prototypes including spherical, aspheric, and special kinds of lenses and lens arrays has reformed the fabrication of optical components. In this paper, specifically designed lens array prototypes for application in visible light communication (VLC) are introduced. These lens array prototypes are manufactured using the stereolithography apparatus (SLA) process. These lens arrays are designed to achieve optimal transmission of the light beam for VLC systems. One of the prototypes from the lens arrays contains primarily four spherical lenses and one thicker convex lens and the other contains one fresnel lens as a substitute for thicker convex lens. These lens arrays are further post-processed to achieve the required transparency. These lens array prototypes are tested using laser and LEDs. The ON-OFF keying modulated light beam was transmitted through the lens array at the sender side and focused on the photo-receiver using another lens array at the receiver side which is 200 cm apart. After evaluating these lens prototypes, it can be concluded that with appropriate post-processing and high-resolution stereolithography based manufacturing, a low data rate VLC link can be formed.
Additive manufacturing (AM) has provided a new aspect of manufacturing 3D objects in the past few decades. The use of AM for the production of 3D objects has accelerated the rate of designing and manufacturing. These AM techniques can be utilized in manufacturing optical, mechanical and electrical prototypes. The manufacturing of optical prototypes involves the production of spherical lens prototypes and special forms of aspheric and concentrator lenses such as fresnel lens prototypes. Different designed fresnel lens prototypes are manufactured using a transparent clear resin material and stereolithography apparatus (SLA) process. It uses a photochemical process to develop 3D structures. These manufactured fresnel lens prototypes are difficult to postprocess using hand polishing, hence they are post-processed using lacquering to get more transparency. These prototypes are tested using a laser source to evaluate the attenuation of light and focal length of manufactured fresnel lens prototypes. Similar tests using a commercially available convex lens of the same focal length are carried out. The results of these tests show that the difference between the mean of attenuation of light beam when passed through a fresnel lens prototype and the convex lens is 1 dB. The focal length of manufactured fresnel lens prototypes has a 10 mm deviation. Therefore, it is feasible to manufacture complexity and cost reduced fresnel lens prototypes using SLA and lacquering.
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