Miicrofluidic-based Oil-immersion Lenses for High Resolution Microscopy

Optical imaging systems with submicron resolution typically require the use of expensive, high numerical aperture (NA) microscope objective lenses. Here, we describe a novel Microfluidic-based Oil-Immersion Lens (μOIL) chip that can perform submicron and wide field of view imaging. Key element of the chip design is the use of high index of refraction, oil-immersion ball mini-lenses that have high NA (~0.8) and therefore very good optical resolution (0.6-0.7 μm). The μOIL chip can be part of a lab-on-chip system or it can used as an add-on module in low cost stereoscopes to enable high resolution imaging of biological samples in the lab, in the doctor’s office or in the field.