• Acta Photonica Sinica
  • Vol. 51, Issue 6, 0622004 (2022)
Guang YANG1、*, Minghui DUAN1, Yue HUI1, Kai LIU2, Guide LIANG2, and Zhipeng HUANG2
Author Affiliations
  • 1College of Marine Equipment and Mechanical Engineering,Jimei University,Xiamen,Fujian 361021,China
  • 2Fujian Yegood Technology Co.,Ltd.,Quanzhou,Fujian 362200,China
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    DOI: 10.3788/gzxb20225106.0622004 Cite this Article
    Guang YANG, Minghui DUAN, Yue HUI, Kai LIU, Guide LIANG, Zhipeng HUANG. Divergence Performance of Reflective Film Enhanced by Microlenses Combined with Non-standard Pyramid Structure[J]. Acta Photonica Sinica, 2022, 51(6): 0622004 Copy Citation Text show less

    Abstract

    There are higher requirements for various properties of optical films with the increasing maturity of the manufacturing process of polymer surface microstructures. The road traffic reflective film uses the pyramid array structure to achieve the effect of light retroreflection. Therefore, the simulation to design the pyramid structure is the important significance for shortening the product development cycle and saving costs using the computer. A standard pyramid prism (with an angle of 90°between surfaces) is an optical structure element that can return light rays along the incident direction. In practical application, microprism reflection film requires a certain observation angle (divergence angle) and requires that the brightness decrease from the center of the optical axis to the edge. However, the standard pyramid prism reflective film can not meet the requirement of large viewing angle brightness. The research on the divergence of pyramid prisms can be divided into two aspects. One is to enhance the divergence of the reflective film by changing the size of the pyramid prism. However, only when the size of the pyramid is less than 10 μm, it will have a certain brightness at the larger observation angle, and the manufacturing cost of the pyramid with a small size will increase as the processing difficulty increases. Another method is to achieve the purpose of light deflection by changing the pyramid structure. Among them, the pyramid array formed by changing a single dihedral angle deviation (non-standard pyramid) can enhance the light intensity at a specific deflection angle, but significantly reduce the light intensity at other deflection angles. In addition, the ideal light distribution and illumination can be obtained theoretically by combining the pyramidal laminates with different dihedral angle deviations to optimize the light distribution at different deflection angles. However, the angle cutting with different dihedral angle deviation faces the use of forming tools with different cutting angles, and the tool change brings difficulties to precise positioning. The design of setting different dihedral angle gradients on the same cone to achieve the effect of light divergence also has the problem of difficult positioning accuracy brought by tool change. The light beam can be distributed uniformly or non-uniform by using the pyramid with dihedral angle deviation, and the premise is to combine the pyramid with different dihedral angle deviations. The lens can realize the divergence of light because the radius of curvature of the lens controls the diffusion range of the whole beam. With the increase of the radius of curvature, the diffusion range becomes smaller, the average illuminance becomes higher, and the peak illuminance becomes smaller. The concave lens can achieve uniform divergence of light rays, but can not achieve non-uniform divergence. The non-uniform divergence can be easily realized by superimposing microlens and dihedral angle deviation pyramid structures. In this paper, the influence of dihedral angle deviation and lens curvature radius on divergence angle is analyzed theoretically based on the geometrical optics principle. The divergence of light rays is analyzed by using optical simulation software according to the combination of the microlenses and pyramidal structure with different geometric parameters. The results show that the deflection angle increases linearly with the increase of dihedral angle deviation. The divergence angle increases with the decrease of the curvature radius of the microlenses. Non-uniform divergence of light rays can be realized by using microlenses superimposed with dihedral angle deviation. The combination of the concave lens and negative dihedral angular deviation prism, or convex lens and positive dihedral angular deviation prism, can realize the continuous non-uniform divergence of light rays from the center to the outside. The optimal design interval of the curvature radius is determined to be 5~6 mm, and the optimal design interval of dihedral angle deviation is determined to be 2.80~3.32 mrad through the simulation calculation. The above research results can be used for the structural design and optimization of micro prism reflective film.
    Guang YANG, Minghui DUAN, Yue HUI, Kai LIU, Guide LIANG, Zhipeng HUANG. Divergence Performance of Reflective Film Enhanced by Microlenses Combined with Non-standard Pyramid Structure[J]. Acta Photonica Sinica, 2022, 51(6): 0622004
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