Solid immersion microlens arrays-based light-field camera for 3D in vivo imaging

Light-field imaging facilitates the miniaturization of 3D cameras while it requires the extension of the depth-of-field (DoF) for practical applications such as endoscopy and intraoral scanning. Here we report a light-field camera (LFC) using solid immersion microlens arrays (siMLAs) for 3D biomedical imaging. The experimental results show that the focal length of MLAs is increased by 2.7 times and the transmittance is enhanced up to 6.9% by immersion in PDMS film. In particular, the f-number of siMLAs exceeds the limit of conventional MLAs fabricated by thermal reflow, resulting in a larger DoF. The LFC based on siMLAs has successfully acquired the depth map of a dental phantom as a hand-held scanner. This LFC suggests a new way for developing a compact in vivo 3D imaging system.