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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26606-z OPEN

Biomimetic apposition compound eye fabricated

using microfluidic-assisted 3D printing
Bo Dai1,7, Liang Zhang1,7, Chenglong Zhao 2,3,7, Hunter Bachman4, Ryan Becker 5, John Mai6, Ziao Jiao1,
Wei Li1, Lulu Zheng1, Xinjun Wan1, Tony Jun Huang 4 ✉, Songlin Zhuang1 & Dawei Zhang1 ✉
1234567890():,;

After half a billion years of evolution, arthropods have developed sophisticated compound
eyes with extraordinary visual capabilities that have inspired the development of artificial
compound eyes. However, the limited 2D nature of most traditional fabrication techniques
makes it challenging to directly replicate these natural systems. Here, we present a biomi-
metic apposition compound eye fabricated using a microfluidic-assisted 3D-printing techni-
que. Each microlens is connected to the bottom planar surface of the eye via intracorporal,
zero-crosstalk refractive-index-matched waveguides to mimic the rhabdoms of a natural eye.
Full-colour wide-angle panoramic views and position tracking of a point source are realized by
placing the fabricated eye directly on top of a commercial imaging sensor. As a biomimetic
analogue to naturally occurring compound eyes, the eye’s full-colour 3D to 2D mapping
capability has the potential to enable a wide variety of applications from improving endo-
scopic imaging to enhancing machine vision for facilitating human–robot interactions.

1 Engineering Research Center of Optical Instrument and System, the Ministry of Education, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Modern Optical System, University of

Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China. 2 Department of Physics, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH 45469, USA. 3 Department of
Electro-Optics and Photonics, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH 45469, USA. 4 Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke
University, Durham, NC 27709, USA. 5 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27709, USA. 6 Alfred E. Mann Institute for
Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA. 7These authors contributed equally: Bo Dai, Liang Zhang,
Chenglong Zhao. ✉email: [email protected]; [email protected]

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S
urvival of the fittest has continuously driven the evolution With its unique 3D to 2D mapping capability, the 3D BAC-eye
and improvement of compound eyes1,2. Even early exam- presented here opens up many applications in photonics, sensing,
ples of arthropods dating back to the Cambrian era had and imaging.
evolved faceted compound eyes3,4 which enabled them to per-
ceive their environment based on visual phototaxis5. A com-
pound eye consists of a group of ommatidia which are oriented in Results
different directions to provide arthropods with panoramic vision Fabrication of the 3D BAC-eye. The design of the 3D BAC-eye
accompanied with other useful visual advantages including depth follows the anatomical structure of an apposition compound eye
perception, low-aberration detection of their surroundings, and (Fig. 1a). Each microlens on the BAC-eye has the same function as
high-sensitivity motion tracking. Each ommatidium includes a the corneal facet lens of a natural eye. The cylindrical post and the
corneal facet lens for light collection, a crystalline cone and a silicone-elastomer waveguide function as a crystalline cone and a
rhabdom for light transmission, and pigment cells for optical rhabdom, respectively (Fig. 1b). The internal structure of the
isolation to minimize crosstalk6,7. The resulting outstanding artificial eye mimics the function of pigment cells to reduce optical
visual performance enabled by this compound design has been crosstalk. The number of ommatidia in the BAC-eye (522) is
widely exploited for a diverse range of applications such as comparable with that of bark beetles (Dendroctonus rufipennis,
endoscopic examination8, robot navigation9,10 and surveillance11. average count: 272; Dendroctonus valens, average count: 372), ants
Natural compound eyes have inspired various optical systems (Temnothorax albipennis, average count: 300 (male) and 171
with artificial microlens arrays12–19, and a significant amount of (queens); Brachyponera chinensis, average count: 168 (worker)
research has been devoted to improving the fabrication and (Fig. 1c)), and fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster, average count:
design of these systems. 730)47–49. Figure 1d shows a top-view SEM image of the BAC-eye.
Most artificial compound eyes that have been previously It has a radius of 2.5 mm and its microlenses are hexagonally and
demonstrated rely on conventional microfabrication techniques. omnidirectionally distributed across the hemispherical dome. The
For example, some compound eyes are fabricated by transferring most peripheral ommatidia are oriented at ±85° with respect to the
planar microlens arrays (or moulds) to the surface of a vertical axis, extending the viewing angle of the BAC-eye to 170°.
hemisphere20–22. Although these planar microlens arrays are The fabrication process and the components used in the
relatively easy to fabricate using thermal reflow23,24, laser-induced fabrication are illustrated in Fig. 1e–i (additional details provided
forward transfer25,26, laser ablation27, jet printing28,29 or micro- in Supplementary Figs. 1–4). First, a mould with an open
fluidic manipulation30–32 techniques, transferring the pattern to a hemispherical pit is 3D-printed using a projection micro-
spherical surface can affect the uniformity of the lens and thus the stereolithography 3D printer50,51. The surface of the hemisphe-
performance of the system. Even though issues related to 3D rical mould is patterned with 522 cylindrical microholes, each
fabrication can be resolved by applying advanced microfabrica- with a diameter of 180 μm, that are arranged omnidirectionally
tion techniques, such as 3D laser writing, laser lithography, along the surface of the hemisphere (Fig. 1f and Supplementary
chemical etching, or two-photon polymerization33–42, a funda- Fig. 2). The process of forming a convex lens mould within these
mental problem still exists. Namely, the images produced from cylindrical holes, however, requires precision handling; due to
existing 3D artificial compound eyes do not match with current the small size of the microholes and current limitations in the
commercial planar imaging sensor technology. Automatic resolution of 3D-printing technology, the curvature cannot be
matching of the image from a compound eye to a planar imaging encoded into the mould directly. Therefore, a microfluidic-
sensor can significantly reduce the complexity of image- assisted moulding technique, which leverages surface tension, was
processing algorithms and also will reduce the number of sen- used to form a proper concave shape within each microcavity.
sors required for the system. Deformable optoelectronics, in The procedure of the microfluidic-assisted moulding is
which an array of photodetectors are curved to match to a illustrated in Fig. 2a, Supplementary Fig. 1, and Supplementary
compound eye43–46, provide a potential solution for the afore- Note 1. To form the microlens mould, a hemispherical pit with
mentioned matching problem; however, the deformable curvature cylindrical microholes is first filled with acrylate resin. The mould
might be a key factor that would limit the size of the is then spun around its central axis at a spin rate of Ω rpm for
compound eye. 4 min. As the mould is spun, a portion of the acrylate resin is
In order to overcome all these shortcomings, we have devel- ejected from the microholes due to the centrifugal force generated
oped a biomimetic apposition compound eye (BAC-eye) using a by the spinning process. The amount of resin that remains within
unique fabrication method that combines 3D printing with each hole is a function of the spin parameters and the location of
microfluidic-assisted moulding to pattern 522 microlenses, in an the hole within the mould. Figure 2b and Supplementary Fig. 5
omnidirectional manner, across the surface of a hemisphere. Each presents results from numerical simulations that were performed
microlens of the BAC-eye is optically connected to the flat base of to study the surface profile of the acrylate resin in the microholes
the hemisphere with an optical pipe that consists of a refractive at different orientations (polar angle, α, and azimuthal angle, β, as
index-matched waveguide. The flat base of the compound lens defined in Supplementary Fig. 3) before and after spinning the
can be directly attached to any planar image sensor to enable full- mould. While spinning, the surface of the liquid-state acrylate
colour, wide-field-of-view imaging. This effectively makes the resin in the on-axis microhole (α = 0°) becomes a symmetrical
BAC-eye an accurate recreation of a natural compound eye, parabolic shape, while the resin in the off-axis microholes (α ≠ 0°)
yielding a compact form factor (5 mm in diameter vs. 4 mm for gradually inclines towards the outer side of the microhole as the
the compound eyes of a dragonfly) and a large viewing angle angle α increases. The amount of acrylate resin remaining in the
(170° vs. 150° to 180° in most natural compound eyes). As a microhole decreases as the spinning speed increases (Supple-
proof-of-concept demonstration, we captured full-colour, wide- mentary Fig. 5). Moreover, in the off-axis microholes (α ≠ 0°)
angle panoramic images, and demonstrated accurate position close to the centre, most of the acrylate resin ascends up the side
tracking of a point source. The unique fabrication method pre- of the microhole and spills out (Supplementary Fig. 6). In
sented herein enables the fabrication of highly adaptable biomi- contrast, the tilted microholes on the edge of the hemispherical
metic compound eyes that are compatible with any existing pit hold more acrylate resin.
planar imaging sensors and greatly simplifies the optics and When the spinning stops, the surface tension dominates and
electronics required for obtaining a digital 3D panoramic view. deforms the surface of the acrylate resin into a concave shape

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a b
Natural compound eye BAC-eye
Corneal facet lens Microlens
Post
Crystalline cone

Pigment cells
Waveguide

Substrate
Rhabdom

Photoreceptor cell

Image sensor
Optic nerve
c d

20 μm 200 μm
e Substrate
Acrylate resin RTV silicone

Mould

f g h i

1 mm

1 mm 500 μm 1 mm 1 mm

Fig. 1 Illustrations of the fabrication procedure and images of the BAC-eye. a Anatomical structure of an arthropod compound eye. b Labelled cross
section of a BAC-eye. c SEM image of a compound eye of the Asian needle ant, Brachyponera chinensis. d SEM image of a BAC-eye. e Illustration of the main
steps of the fabrication procedure. The BAC-eye is produced in a hemispherical substrate by casting it in a prepared mould. f Image of the 3D-printed
mould. g The 3D-printed substrate and a quarter sectional slice of the substrate. h Image of a BAC-eye after release from the mould. i A view showing the
flat bottom of the BAC-eye.

within all the microholes. More specifically, the radius of moulding. To analyse this performance of this replication process,
curvature of the concave surface can be described by the contact two moulds, each of which consisted of a single row of microholes
angle, θe, between the three phases under thermodynamic on the bottom of the hemispherical pit, were prepared
equilibrium, i.e., R ¼ d=ð2 cosðθe ÞÞ (Fig. 2c). The equilibrium by spinning the acrylate resin with speeds of 1500 and
contact angle, θe, is 13.2°, as measured in Fig. 2d for the system 4500 rpm, respectively. Figure 2e shows side-view optical images
used in these experiments. With a uniform curvature achieved of the replicated microlenses at different orientations and
within each microhole, the liquid-state acrylate resin within each spinning speeds. The profiles of the microlenses are nearly
chamber is then UV cured for 15 min. The convex surface of each identical, demonstrating that their shape is independent of their
ommatidium can be obtained as the complimentary mould of the orientation and the rotational speed, which is consistent with the
acrylate resin in the microholes using microfluidic-assisted assumption that the surface tension dominates the formation of

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a b c Resin on d θe =13.2°
Acrylate resin α = 0° α = 60° the polymer θe
Spinning
Ω=1500 rpm θe
500 μm

Resin in
e Ω=1500 rpm Ω=4500 rpm
Mould Ω rpm the microhole θ=12.9° θ θ=13.4°
4 mins
α θ

α=0°
θe
Static
Ω=0 rpm Microlens θ=13.2° θ=13.0°
demoulded from
the microhole θ

α=43.2°
α θe θ
α
R
hPost
50 μm
f Ω=1500 rpm g 300
Ω=4500 rpm
250 Ω=3000 rpm
Ω=1500 rpm
200
hPost (μm)

150

100
Ω=4500 rpm
50

0
80 60 40 20 0 20 40 60 80
α (degree)

1 mm β=180° β=0°

Fig. 2 Design of the mould and morphologic characterization of the BAC-eye. a Illustration showing the fabrication of the mould. b The surface profiles of
the acrylate resin in the microholes in different orientations during dynamic (while spinning) and static (after spinning) equilibrium. c A comparison
between the surface profiles of the acrylate resin on the (top) flat polymer substrate, (middle) in the microhole, and (bottom) after the microlens is
demoulded from the microhole. d Contact angle measurements for the acrylate resin on the photosensitive polymer. e Microscope images of the artificial
ommatidia. The microlenses in the different orientations and as produced under different spin rates have a uniform curvature. f Images of a single row of
the ommatidia along the curved surface of the BAC-eye. Different heights are produced based on the location of the posts and the balance of forces during
the fabrication process. g Experimentally measured (data point markers) and simulation results (solid curves) of the post height distribution across the
surface of the hemisphere, with respect to rotational rate.

the concave lenses. The radius of curvature of each microlens is this complementary substrate can be found in Supplementary
91.9 ± 0.8 μm (Supplementary Fig. 7), which is in good agreement Note 3, as illustrated in Supplementary Fig. 3 and Supplementary
with the theoretical prediction, R = 92 μm (Supplementary Fig. 4. The hemisphere is then inserted into the mould and the
Equation 9 in Supplementary Note 2). As expected, the height hollow pipelines in the substrate are aligned with the cylindrical
of the cylindrical post (hPost) depends on both the rotational microholes in the mould. The empty pipelines and the concave
speed (Ω) and the orientation of the microholes (α) in the mould microholes are filled with silicone by immersing the combined
as shown in Fig. 2f. This is because a larger spin speed removes system in a room-temperature-vulcanizing (RTV) silicone in a
more of the acrylate resin and the microhole close to the centre liquid state. After curing for 4 h, the RTV silicone solidifies into
holds less acrylate resin, resulting in a deeper microhole, and an elastomer. Separating the hemisphere from the mould yields a
subsequently higher complementary posts. Figure 2g shows the complete BAC-eye, as shown in Fig. 1h. Each ommatidium
height of the post as a function of α at different rotational speeds consists of a microlens with a radius of 90 μm capped on a
Ω. The experimental data (markers) agrees well with the cylindrical polymer post. These ommatidia are optically con-
calculations (solid curves). Even though the height of each post nected to the bottom of the BAC-eye through the pathway
is different for each ommatidium in the BAC-eye, the curvature formed by the silicone-elastomer waveguide (refractive index
of the microlens on each post is the same. This means that all the nSilicone = 1.50) which was formed in the hollow pipeline. The
ommatidia have an identical relative aperture. diameters of the silicone-elastomer waveguides gradually narrow
After the concave lens mould surfaces are fabricated, a down from the ommatidia (dT = 157 μm) to the bottom of
hemisphere that is complementary to the patterned mould is the BAC-eye (dB = 100 μm). This design serves to increase the
3D-printed using a UV curable diacrylate polymer (refractive separation between individual sources. The outputs of the
index nPolymer = 1.46) that is mixed with Sudan Black 3 solvent waveguides are hexagonally arranged at the flat base of
dye (Fig. 1g). The hemisphere consists of 522 hollow pipelines, or the BAC-eye (Fig. 1i). Since the bottom of the BAC-eye is
tapered channels, which connect the hemispherical surface to the physically flat and the 3D array of the surface microlenses has
flat base. Additional details about the design and the 3D model of been mapped to a regular hexagonal 2D array via these

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waveguides, this system can be directly matched to any ommatidia and efficiently transmit to the base of the eye. In
commercial planar image sensor. addition, based on the experimental measurement, we found that
the optical loss, including the coupling loss into/out of the
ommatidium and the transmission loss, is 5.37 dB (details about
Optical characterization of the BAC-eye. In order to ensure that the measurement of optical loss can be found in Supplementary
the BAC-eye maintains a high optical fidelity comparable to a Note 5 and Supplementary Fig. 17). The loss is attributed to the
natural compound eye, we optimized the performance of the bending and narrowing of the waveguide.
waveguides and hemispherical substrate of the device. The In addition to the light propagation inside the ommatidia, the
hemispherical element, which serves as the supporting body of 3D nature of this system means that light enters each
the BAC-eye, is comprised of a photosensitive polymer dyed with ommatidium at different angles; therefore, the angular sensitivity
Sudan Black 3 solvent dye. The optical waveguides that connect of the ommatidia was investigated. In the simulation, the light
the cylindrical posts of the artificial ommatidia and the bottom intensity distribution at the proximal ends of the waveguide was
surface of the BAC-eye are patterned within this photosensitive analysed and transmittance, i.e., the ratio between the integral of
polymer. The dye is used to absorb any stray light that escapes the output intensity at the proximal end and the incident
from the waveguides and hence acts to eliminate optical crosstalk intensity on the microlens, was calculated (Supplementary Figs. 18
between adjacent waveguides. Details about the optical density of and 19). Slight bending loss was observed in the highly-curved
the photosensitive polymer dyed with Sudan Black 3 solvent dye waveguides. It is worth noting that the substrate can absorb the
are discussed in Supplementary Note 4. When the concentration leakage of the light and the optical crosstalk between adjacent
is 1500 μg/mL, the photosensitive polymer with thickness of optical pathways can be efficiently avoided. Furthermore, the
9.8 μm has optical density of 3 over the entire visible spectrum angular sensitivity function of three ommatidia at three different
(Supplementary Figs. 8 and 9). The RTV silicone used for orientations of (α = 0°, β = 0°), (α = 36°, β = 0°), and (α = 79.2°,
ommatidia and waveguides is transparent in the range of β = 0°) was experimentally measured, respectively. Supplemen-
400–1100 nm (Supplementary Fig. 10). tary Fig. 20 schematically shows this experiment setup, where a
To further test the transmission properties and optical collimated light beam illuminates the surface of the BAC-eye, and
crosstalk between the waveguides of each ommatidium of the the angular sensitivity function of each ommatidium (α = 0°,
BAC-eye, simulation models of three ommatidia were established β = 0°), (α = 36°, β = 0°) and (α = 79.2°, β = 0°) is obtained by
based on the actual structure and physical properties of the measuring the transmitted light intensity from each ommatidium
ommatidium as shown in Fig. 3a, Supplementary Figs. 11 and 12. as a function of the incident angle of the collimated light beam
The collimated light was incident on the microlens of a specific (details about the experimental measurement and the simulation
ommatidium. We could observe the light output only from the of angular sensitivity can be found in Supplementary Note 6). The
end of the corresponding waveguide. Moreover, three curved incident collimated light beam can be rotated around the BAC-
silicone waveguides were fabricated within the photosensitive eye at any angle (α′ or β′) as defined in Supplementary Fig. 20.
polymer mixed with 1500 μg/mL solvent dye, as shown in Fig. 3b. Figure 3i and j and Supplementary Fig. 21 show the angular
The diameter of each silicone waveguide and the separation sensitivity function of the three ommatidia with the orientations
distance between each optical pathway are each 100 μm, of (α = 0°, β = 0°), (α = 36°, β = 0°), and (α = 79.2°, β = 0°). The
consistent with the dimensions of the BAC-eye. The bend radius light intensity is normalized to the maximum value measured at
and angle of the waveguides are 600 μm and 90°, respectively. A the central ommatidium (α = 0°). The plotted red points were
multi-mode fibre with a 450 nm light source was connected to the obtained from experimental data, while the surface is a Gaussian
middle waveguide (Channel 2). Figure 3c shows an image from fit of the experimental data. The ommatidia with the orientations
the outputs of the three waveguides when only Channel 2 is of (α = 0°, β = 0°), (α = 36°, β = 0°), and (α = 79.2°, β = 0°) have
illuminated. We could not visibly detect any light from Channel 1 the highest intensity at incident angles of (α′ = 0°, β′ = 0°),
or Channel 3, which was consistent with the light distribution (α′ = 12°, β′ = 180°), and (α′ = 30°, β′ = 180°), respectively. The
measured from the proximal ends of the waveguides (Fig. 3d). acceptance angle of each ommatidium, which is defined as the full
The extinction ratios between Channel 2 and Channel 1 and width at half maximum of the angular sensitivity function, is
between Channel 2 and Channel 3 are 16.1 and 15.2 dB, about 44°. The wide acceptance angle is attributed to the large
respectively. These results are consistent with the optical density diameter of the waveguide, where a large number of propagating
measurements from Supplementary Fig. 8, and confirm that the modes are allowed52. These experiments suggest that light
photosensitive polymer mixed with the solvent dye can eliminate collected by each ommatidium is efficiently transmitted to the
any optical crosstalk between the waveguides. bottom surface of the BAC-eye and can be directly detected by a
We also analysed the coupling and propagation of light within planar image sensor regardless of the incident angle relative to the
each ommatidium of the BAC-eye using a ray tracing method. In artificial eye.
this simulation, collimated light, which is incident on the
microlens of the ommatidium with an incident angle (polar
angle α′ and azimuthal angle β′, as defined in Supplementary Panoramic imaging using the BAC-eye. In contrast to conven-
Fig. 13), is coupled into the waveguide. We performed these tional macro imaging lenses, the BAC-eye is capable of forming
simulations with a straight waveguide and two curved waveguides wide-angle panoramic images. Figure 4a shows the working
with orientations of (α = 36°, β = 0°) and (α = 79.2°, β = 0°), principle for capturing panoramic images by coupling a BAC-eye
respectively, to mimic the curvature of the optical pathways to a planar complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS)
within the BAC-eye (Fig. 3e–h and Supplementary Figs. 14–16). camera. Light emitted or reflected from an object, such as the red
Since the refractive index of the substrate is lower than that of the or blue regular tetrahedron in Fig. 4a, is captured by each
waveguide, total internal reflection ensures the propagation of the ommatidium and guided to the bottom of the BAC-eye where its
light inside the waveguide. Owing to the oblique incidence and image is recorded by a colour camera. The sub-image on the
the non-axisymmetric multiple reflection inside the curved camera that corresponds to the light from each ommatidium is
waveguide, the distribution of the rays deviates from the centre then homogenized by taking the average value of the light from
at the proximal end of the waveguide. In spite of that, the each ommatidium. This averaging is needed because each
simulation confirms that the light can be well confined in the ommatidium projects its light across ~80 × 80 pixels of the planar

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Fig. 3 Optical performance of the artificial ommatidia. a Simulation of optical crosstalk among the three ommatidia with orientations of (α = 64.8°,
β = 0°), (α = 72°, β = 0°), and (α = 79.2°, β = 0°) and intensity distributions at the proximal ends of the waveguides when the light is incident on the
middle ommatidium. b A three-channel model to measure the crosstalk among the curved silicone waveguides. c Image captured at the output panel
showing the light intensity at the proximal ends of the three silicone waveguides. d The measured light distribution at the output panel. e–h Simulation of
ray tracing in the ommatidia with orientations of (e, f) (α = 0°, β = 0°) and (g, h) (α = 36°, β = 0°) and light intensity distributions at the proximal ends of
the waveguides when the light is incident from different angles. i, j The angular sensitivity function of the ommatidia with orientations of (α = 0°, β = 0°)
and (α = 36°, β = 0°), respectively. Red dots: the normalized intensity obtained from experimental measurements. Grey surface: Gaussian-fitting surface.

imaging sensor. Finally, a panoramic image of the object is gen- A telecentric lens was used to magnify the image at the flat base of
erated on a hemisphere by digitally stitching the images from the BAC-eye and project it onto the CMOS camera. The
each ommatidium together while accounting for the orientation telecentric lens is not necessary in practical applications, and
of each ommatidium on the outer surface of the BAC-eye (details the BAC-eye can be directly attached to an image sensor; the
in ‘Methods’ and Supplementary Fig. 22). The resolution of the telecentric lens was used in this experiment solely to magnify the
BAC-eye is dependent upon the total number of ommatidia. image and improve spatial sampling. Figure 4e and Supplemen-
Figure 4b shows the panoramic imaging of a square as tary Fig. 23a show the image of the square on the camera. The
visualized through the BAC-eye. Details of the panoramic corresponding panoramic 3D image of the square slot is shown in
imaging system are given in ‘Methods’. A mask with a square Fig. 4f.
object which is 300 μm in width (Fig. 4c) was placed in front of We also demonstrated that the BAC-eye can image objects at
the BAC-eye to project a square onto the BAC-eye. Figure 4d different angular positions with a visible angle ranging of 170°.
shows a side-view optical image of the projected light on the Figure 4g schematically shows the experimental setup for imaging
BAC-eye, as taken using another digital single-lens reflex camera of two objects at different angular positions. A red cross with a
equipped with a macro lens at an angle of α = 15° and β = 180°. line width of 300 μm was placed at a fixed angular position of

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Fig. 4 Imaging using the BAC-eye. a Workflow for image acquisition and processing by the BAC-eye. The colour scale represents the intensity level of the
detected signals. b Schematic diagram of the experimental setup of the imaging system. c The square mask used for image detection experiments. d The
illuminated square pattern as detected by the BAC-eye. The image of the illuminated pattern on the artificial ommatidia is captured by a single-lens reflex
(SLR) camera equipped with a macro lens. e The square pattern image captured from the bottom of BAC-eye. f The digitally reconstructed hemispherical
image. g Illustration of the hemispherical imaging for a red cross pattern whose centre is fixed at an angular position of (α = 60°, β = 0°) and a blue
triangular pattern moving from the side (α = 85°, β = 180°) toward the red cross. h–j The reconstructed images showing the triangle as it travels from
(α = 60°, β = 180°), (α = 40°, β = 180°), and (α = 20°, β = 180°). The digitally generated callouts provide stereoscopic vision (for a human observer) of
the hemispherical images.

α = 60° and β = 0° (the centre position of the cross), while a blue (α = 40°, β = 180°) (Fig. 4i), and (α = 20°, β = 180°) (Fig. 4j) are
triangle with a line width of 200 μm was moved from the side reconstructed. The patterns are clearly recognized and the
toward the red cross. The corresponding panoramic views for the triangle at different angular positions is imaged with a high
centre position of the blue triangle at (α = 60°, β = 180°) (Fig. 4h), uniformity in size and shape. The image detected by the CMOS

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camera for the triangle centred at an angular position of α = 20° Discussion

and β = 180° is illustrated in Supplementary Fig. 23b. In this We have demonstrated a hybrid fabrication method that com-
demonstration, since coherent monochromatic lasers were used bines 3D printing and microfluidic-assisted moulding in order to
as the illumination sources, interference of the different portions generate a 3D BAC-eye that closely mimics the panoramic ima-
of the incident light occurred; therefore, granular speckle patterns ging capabilities of a natural compound eye. In contrast to con-
can be observed in the sub-images of the ommatidia. In nature, ventional 2D fabrication techniques, microfluidic-assisted 3D
arthropods can quickly detect and escape from predators and printing produced precise microstructures inside of complex 3D
track prey, all based on the information, e.g., position, direction micro-geometries, producing a BAC-eye that possesses many
and speed of motion, provided by their peripheral vision. The biomimetic components analogous to those contained in a nat-
advantages of wide-angled, motion-based sensing in applications ural compound eye, including corneal facet lenses, crystalline
range from macro surveillance functions to navigational functions cones, rhabdoms and pigment cells. The BAC-eye was designed
in endoscopic surgeries. to both acquire full-colour 3D panoramic views and to subse-
quently seamlessly map the omnidirectional images to a planar
imaging sensor, avoiding complex 3D photodetection techniques
3D point-source tracking with the BAC-eye. The natural com- and bulky signal readout strategies. The imaging properties of the
pound eyes of fruit flies and worker bees have poor resolution BAC-eye were characterized in detail to investigate the device’s
with respect to static images, but they are highly sensitive to 3D capability to acquire panoramic views of surroundings and to
motion detection. Similarly, the BAC-eye can be used to track the track a point light source in 3D space. Wide-angle and full-colour
position of objects in three dimensions. In contrast to conven- panoramic images without aberrations were successfully recon-
tional monocular vision systems, compound eyes have the visual structed from the 2D images detected by the camera. Further-
advantage of depth perception. Supplementary Fig. 24 illustrates a more, precise 3D position tracking of a point light source was
scenario where objects at different distances are detected using demonstrated without the need for complicated algorithms.
imaging systems equipped with a conventional fisheye lens and Because of the BAC-eye’s ability to seamlessly match to any 2D
the BAC-eye, respectively. The images captured by the fisheye planar imaging sensor without the requirement of additional
lens are identical, indicating that it cannot distinguish between matching optics, we can improve the imaging performance (e.g.,
the absolute distances of the objects. In contrast, it is feasible for resolution and sensitivity) by increasing the number of the
the BAC-eye to determine the object distance. In this section, we ommatidia and the filling factor of the compound eye. Additional
demonstrate the 3D position tracking of a green light point details about the optimization of the BAC-eye can be found in
source with a BAC-eye, as shown in Fig. 5a. The diverging green Supplementary Note 7. The image from each ommatidium
light emitted from an optical fibre is captured by a BAC-eye and effectively contributes one pixel to the entire panoramic image,
projected onto a CMOS camera. The light spots projected onto thus increasing the number of ommatidia present in the BAC-eye
the CMOS camera through the BAC-eye (Fig. 5c–h) change in will proportionally increase the number of pixels in the resulting
position and diameter depending on the angular position of the 2D image. In contrast, increasing the number of ommatidia in a
point source and the distance between the point source and the compound eye that is manufactured by a less adaptable method
centre point of the BAC-eye. The light spot on the CMOS camera such as deformable optoelectronics or nanowires requires a
can be fitted neatly with a Gaussian function (Fig. 5c–e). complete redesign of the entire imaging system, including com-
Figure 5f–h shows the corresponding panoramic views of the plex matching optics and photodetectors. In principle, a full
point source at three distances. When the point light source image can be formed independently from each ommatidium;
moves away from the BAC-eye, the illumination area incident on therefore, 522 independent images with different view angles can
the compound eye becomes large and the diameter of the light be obtained simultaneously on one single planar image sensor. In
spot image on the camera increases, and vice versa (Supple- the future, using imaging over fibre technology53,54, the speckle
mentary Fig. 25). Therefore, the centre position and the width of pattern obtained from each ommatidium could be reconstructed
the imaged light spot on the CMOS camera can be calibrated to into an independent image, and an ultra-high-resolution
obtain the 3D position of the point source as it moves. Figure 5i panoramic image could be created. In addition, the BAC-eye
shows the calibration curve between the distance and the width of normally functions in a receiving mode for panoramic imaging,
the light spot on the camera. The angular position of the point i.e., collecting light from the top surface and transmitting the light
light source can be determined from the centre position of the to the bottom to form an image on a planar image sensor.
light spot on the camera (see the ‘Methods’). Figure 5b shows the However, the BAC-eye could also function in an emitting mode
3D positioning of the point light source at different positions. For by replacing the image sensor with a 2D display, e.g., with a liquid
the calibration process, the yellow and green solid data points crystal display, for potential applications in planetarium projec-
show the actual position and measured position of the light point tion systems55 and volumetric 3D displays56. On a fundamental
source, respectively. The yellow and green circles show the actual level, the BAC-eye may also be useful as a biomimetic model for
position and measured position of a point source which had an natural compound eyes, allowing scientists to study and test the
unknown position a priori. The light distribution and the mechanisms behind insect vision and perception. In addition, due
reconstructed images from the nominally-unknown point source to the miniaturized design and scalability of the BAC-eye, it could
are shown in Fig. 5j, k and Supplementary Fig. 26. The measured be adopted by fields such as micro-robotics where it can be uti-
positions are consistent with the actual positions of the point lized for applications including 3D endoscopic vision in industrial
source with a root-mean-square deviation of <0.16. The precision and medical inspections; the BAC-eye may also be useful for
of the position tracking can be further improved by increasing the machine vision for functional human–robot interactions, and
number of ommatidia of the BAC-eye and the bit depth of the improving 3D displays.
CMOS camera. This 3D position tracking feature of the BAC-eye
allows it to quantitatively locate a moving light source, which
could be potentially implemented for advanced 3D phototaxic Methods
Fabrication process for the BAC-eye. Supplementary Fig. 1 shows the fabrication
navigation and search applications, e.g., as a sensor to process for the BAC-eye, as follows: (1) A mould consisting of an open hemi-
guide a robotic capsule endoscope to locate fluorophore-labelled spherical pit and 522 cylindrical microholes arranged omnidirectionally on the
lesions. bottom of the pit was designed by computer-aided design (CAD) software and 3D

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NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26606-z ARTICLE

a b

Fig. 5e,h
Fig. 5j,k
Fig. 5d,g Fig. S9c,d
Fig. 5c,f Fig. S9a,b

Target Target
Calibration Measurement
Measured Measured

c d e

f g h

i j k
σ = 0.8672 +0.1483
1+e-0.6007(L -6.685)

2
R = 0.9999

Fig. 5 Tracking the position of a light point source using the BAC-eye. a Schematic diagram of the light point source tracking experiments. b The
positions of the light spots. The yellow and green solid dots are the target and measured positions used for calibration, respectively. The yellow and green
circles are the target and measured positions from experiments where the light location is not known a priori. c–e The light distribution collected by the
BAC-eye and f–h the corresponding hemispherical images of the light spots at a radial distance 5, 7, and 9 mm away from the original point. Yellow dots
are the average grayscale measured from the proximal ends of the waveguides. The colour scale represents the intensity level of the detected light. i The
relation between the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the light distribution obtained by the BAC-eye and the distance from the original point to the
light spot. j The light distribution obtained for the light spot at a nominally-unknown position and k the corresponding hemispherical images of the
light spot.

printed by a 3D printer with a printing resolution of 10 μm (nanoArch® P140, BMF Technology Co., China). The design of the pipeline structure, which acts as optical
Precision Technology Co., China). (2) Acrylate resin (Aroh Alona, China) was waveguides, is discussed in Supplementary Fig. 3. (7) The hemispherical substrate
added to the pit of the mould. The mould was placed in vacuum at –0.1 MPa for was inserted into the pit of the mould. The six auxiliary supports around the
10 min to remove any microbubbles from the acrylate resin. (3) The mould was hemisphere of the substrate (Fig. 1g) and the six slots on the surface of the mould
then spun at 1500 rpm for 4 min. (4) After the spinning stopped, the mould was (Supplementary Fig. 2) were used to align the pipelines in the substrate with the
placed in a dark environment for 30 min. (5) The mould was then exposed to UV microholes in the mould. (8) The entire mould plus hemispherical substrate
light for 15 min to cure the acrylate resin. (6) A hemispherical substrate consisting structure was immersed into liquid-state RTV silicone (Part A: phenyl(-
of 522 hollow pipelines was designed and 3D printed using a photosensitive chlorophenyl)siloxane-dimethylsiloxane copolymer, vinyldimethylsiloxane termi-
polymer dyed with Sudan Black 3 (Sigma-Aldrich, USA) at a concentration of nated and Part B: methylhydrosiloxane-phenylmethylsiloxane copolymer, hydride
1500 μg/mL with the same 3D printer (nanoArch® P140, BMF Precision terminated; the weight ratio of Part A and Part B is 1:1) (Gelest, Inc.) and

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ARTICLE NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26606-z

evacuated at –0.1 MPa for 20 min to ensure that the RTV silicone completely filled distance LP. In this experiment, a logarithmic calibration function was obtained as:
in the pipelines and the microholes. (9) The RTV silicone was then cured at 55 °C p1
for 4 h. (10) The fully formed BAC-eye was separated from the mould. σ¼ þ p4 ð8Þ
1 þ ep2 ðLp p3 Þ
where p1, p2, p3 and p4 are the fitting parameters. The measured distance LP can be
Characterization of the materials. In order to reduce the optical crosstalk due to readily obtained by measuring the width of the Gaussian distribution of the light
light leakage in the waveguides of the ommatidia, the photosensitive polymer used spot on the camera as:
for the supporting structures of the BAC-eye was mixed with Sudan Black 3 solvent  
dye. Four 100-μm slices were 3D printed using the prepared photosensitive poly- 1 p1
LP ¼ p3  log 1 ð9Þ
mer. The optical density of the slices was measured using a spectrophotometer p2 σ  p4
(LAMBDA 1050, PerkinElmer, Inc., USA). When the dye concentration was The peak position of the Gaussian distribution reveals the orientation of the
1500 μg/mL, the optical density, in the wavelength range from 400 to 800 nm, was point light source, which can be calculated by using Eqs. (1) and (2). Finally, the
above 3.3. The optical transmission spectrum of the 10-mm-thick RTV silicone was position of the spotlight source can be determined using Eqs. (3)–(5).
also measured using the spectrophotometer. The contact angle, θe, of an acrylate
resin droplet on the flat photosensitive polymer substrate and the curvature of the
microlenses were measured by an optical contact angle meter (SL200B, KINO Data availability
Scientific Instrument Inc., USA). The data that support the findings of the study are available from the corresponding
author upon reasonable request.
Panoramic imaging system. The experimental setup of the panoramic imaging
system is illustrated in Fig. 4b. A broadband tungsten-halogen light source Code availability
(SLS201L/M, Thorlabs, Inc., USA) was used to generate white light. 450 and The codes used for panoramic imaging are available from the main developer
633 nm semiconductor lasers (MDL-E-450 and MRL-III-633L, CNI Laser, China) ([email protected]) upon reasonable request.
were used to generate blue and red light. The collimated light via fiber collimators
(F810FC-543, Thorlabs, Inc., USA) illuminated masks with square, cross and tri-
angle patterns, respectively. Each mask was placed in front of the compound eye Received: 6 October 2020; Accepted: 13 September 2021;
with a distance of 8 mm. A telecentric lens (1X, 40 mm WD CompactTL™, Edmund
Optics Inc., USA), whose aperture was f/11, was used to magnify the image at the
flat base of the eye. The image was recorded using a CMOS camera (EO-18112,
Edmund Optics Inc., USA).

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