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lab, and Asst. Prof Frumkin. The process of manufacturing Assoc. Prof. Moran Bercovici (middle), with
Beyond its use in the manufacture of glasses and the lens. This technology Mor Elgarisi (right) and Omer Luria. “This
does not require casting or technology will enable the production of
contact lenses, the new technology can also be used polishing, which dramatically components in a huge range of shapes and
for the rapid production of complex optical compo- reduces manufacturing time sizes, using any liquid that can be hardened."
nents for applications in virtual and augmented reality, and costs Photos: Rami Chelouche, Technion PR office
imaging devices, autonomous vehicles, microscopes,
and telescopes. In recent years, advanced applica- Assoc. Prof. Bercovici and his team on NASA’s microgravity flight. Their
tions such as these have created the need for lenses in innovation will allow giant telescope lenses to be produced directly in space
more complex and less symmetrical shapes (freeform
optics), which are difficult to manufacture: engraving space – a complex challenge that all space research This article
or lithography techniques produce lenses of a limited bodies are currently working on. was written in
size, and 3D printing is slow and not sufficiently accu- collaboration with
rate. “Our technology will enable the rapid production Milling and polishing systems for lenses are large the Technion PR
of lenses in complex and unique topographies, with and cumbersome, making launching them into space office
no need for casting, polishing, or sophisticated equip- unviable. But the new technology will enable the pro-
ment,” says Omer Luria, a research engineer at the duction of optical components in space, paving the
lab who took part in writing the article for Optica. The way for creating space telescopes with especially large
new lenses will also have a “roughness level” of less lenses. The larger the lens, the more light it can gath-
than 1 nanometer, making them much smoother than er, improving the telescope’s resolution. In the same
eyeglasses (100 nanometers) and even the new space manner, it will be possible to produce optical compo-
telescope (20 nanometers). nents for the cameras, microscopes, and glasses used
by astronauts.
The technology developed by the Technion’s re-
searchers is based on shaping a liquid polymer within The researchers believe that in addition to produc-
another liquid. One of the major challenges in this ap- ing hard lenses, the innovative technology will be used
proach stems from the fact that for optics with a diam- in the future to create liquid lenses – lenses that can
eter larger than 2 mm, the force of gravity overpowers be used as optical components in their liquid state. In
the surface tension, resulting in the flattening of the this way a dynamic lens is attained, which can be mod-
top part of the lens in its liquid state. The researchers ified as needed by injecting additional liquid polymer
solved this problem by adjusting the characteristics of or changing the density of the primary liquid in which
the polymer and its surrounding liquid, such that the the lens is formed.
force of buoyancy offsets the force of gravity: the liq-
uid polymer is injected into the primary liquid and is
shaped within it under the influence of the reciprocal
relations between the surface tension of the liquids,
the hydrostatic forces acting on them, and gravity; the
shape is also created by a stiff frame which delimits
the scope of the liquid polymer. When the polymer
reaches its final shape, UV radiation is applied to it,
which stiffens it and turns it into a solid lens.

Following the success of lab trials, Prof. Bercovici
and the research team participated in two NASA-oper-
ated parabolic flights (which create microgravity condi-
tions), where they demonstrated the successful produc-
tion of lenses in only 20 seconds. The next stage of the
research will involve microgravity experiments conduct-
ed in space. Indeed, the experiment is soon expected
to reach the International Space Station as part of the
Rakia Mission led by the Ramon Foundation in collabo-
ration with the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Prof. Bercovici feels that the development is a dra-
matic step on the way to creating large telescopes in

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering | MEgazine | 11