Nano-fabrication of Accommodative Intraocular Lenses Using Gray-scale Electron Beam and Soft Lithography

An estimated 45 million blind people and 135 million visually impaired people live in the world, and an estimated 3.1% of deaths are directly or indirectly due to cataract, glaucoma, trachoma, and onchocerciasis. Cataract, which is clouding of the crystalline lens of the eye, is the leading cause of blindness world-wide. The only truly effective treatment of cataract is surgery to replace the lens with an artificial implant, which is known as an intraocular lens (IOL). The ultimate IOL should restore vision and accommodation entirely like the original lens of the eye. A novel design of a spiral mold composed of nano channels is fabricated using advanced 3D electron beam lithography. Using the technique of soft lithography, IOL will be created from this mold. The main goal is to design the new type of IOL that will reliable, versatile, cost and time effective.