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Abstract On‐the‐eye microsystems such as smart contacts for vision correction, health monitoring, drug delivery, and displaying information represent a new emerging class of low‐profile (≤ 1 mm) wireless microsystems that conform to the curvature of the eyeball surface. The implementation of suitable low‐profile power sources for eye‐based microsystems on curved substrates is a major technical challenge addressed in this paper. The fabrication and characterization of a hybrid energy generation unit composed of a flexible silicon solar cell and eye‐blinking activated Mg–O₂metal–air harvester capable of sustainably supplying electrical power to smart ocular devices are reported. The encapsulated photovoltaic device provides a DC output with a power density of 42.4 µW cm⁻²and 2.5 mW cm⁻²under indoor and outdoor lighting conditions, respectively. The eye‐blinking activated Mg–air harvester delivers pulsed power output with a maximum power density of 1.3 mW cm⁻². A power management circuit with an integrated 11 mF supercapacitor is used to convert the harvesters’ pulsed voltages to DC, boost up the voltages, and continuously deliver ≈150 µW at a stable 3.3 V DC output. Uniquely, in contrast to wireless power transfer, the power pack continuously generates electric power and does not require any type of external accessories for operation. 

We propose an artificial iris to tackle sensitivity caused by photophobia. This artificial iris is made with a twisted nematic cell sandwiched between two linear polarizers. The light attenuation performance of a commercial TNC was compared with TNCs made for smart contact lenses. 

We report the theory, construction, and testing of a flexible ocular, on-the-eye microsystem used for ultra-low power object distance sensing suitable for smart adaptive contact lenses. The microsystem determines object distance by vergence angle triangulation. Vergence angle is determined from passive measurements of the earth’s magnetic field at each eye. Vergence measurements were performed every 5-degree interval over 35 degrees in total for each eye to accommodate the entire human visual range. Vergence angle measurements had an RMS error of 1.74 degrees and a distance ranging RMS error of 14.04 mm. The energy requirement per magnetic field measurement was estimated to be approximately 2 μJ per eye. 

This paper reports the microfabrication of a Galinstan-based flexible coil on a contact lens and its preliminary use for wireless power transfer onto a smart contact lens. The Galinstan-based coil provides accommodation against physical deformation of a contact lens by maintaining electrical conductivity under strains due to its semi-fluidic nature. The fabricated Galinstan-coils successfully demonstrated post-deformation tolerance up to 166.67% strain. The fabricated contact lens prototype with a Galinstan-coil showed the maximum wireless power reception of 32.4 μW with a power efficiency of 0.75% from an external coil located 5 mm away within a frame of eyeglasses. 

We demonstrate fabrication of tunable flexible refractive Fresnel liquid-crystal lens using PET for Smart Contact Lens System. We show focus tunability of 1.9D at 1.1V_RMSusing voltage and pulse width modulation lens tuning techniques. 

By stacking multiple thin, LC filled lenses based on refractive Fresnel geometry, we experimentally demonstrate a fast response, low-power, and low-profile adaptive optical system that is suitable for integration with a smart contact lens system. 

Using high-performance LC (5CB) filled microfabricated refractive Fresnel chambers, we experimentally demonstrate a thin low-profile adaptive optical system with very high analog tunability (15.5 D) that can be integrated with an adaptive smart contact-lens system. 

We demonstrate the implementation of a low-power, low-profile, varifocal liquid-crystal Fresnel lens stack suitable for tunable imaging in smart contact lenses. The lens stack consists of a high-order refractive-type liquid crystal Fresnel chamber, a voltage-controlled twisted nematic cell, a linear polarizer and a fixed offset lens. The lens stack has an aperture of 4 mm and thickness is ∼980 µm. The varifocal lens requires ∼2.5 V_RMSfor a maximum optical power change of ∼6.5 D consuming electrical power of ∼2.6 µW. The maximum RMS wavefront aberration error was 0.2 µm and the chromatic aberration was 0.008 D/nm. The average BRISQUE image quality score of the Fresnel lens was 35.23 compared to 57.23 for a curved LC lens of comparable power indicating a superior Fresnel imaging quality.