Transverse additive manufacturing and optical evaluation of miniature thin lenses in ultracompact micro multi-spherical compound eye

•Micro multi-spherical compound eye was designed for planar photoelectric detection and the maximum optical intensity improvement of ommatidia can reach 63.9% with this arrangement.•Two-photon polymerization with transverse additive manufacturing method was utilized to achieve precise manufacturing of thin lenses in micro compound eye.•Spot diagrams and MTF curves were used to evaluate the optical property of the designed compound eye.•The imaging quality of ommatidia at various levels of compound eye was evaluated by the root-mean-square value in Hexcone model.