Abstract: A transparent, refracting material is disposed atop an opto-electronic substrate device. Such refracting material has formed therein a plurality of microlenses arranged in a regular, tessellated pattern, which is superimposable on a regular tiling pattern of polygonal cells, attached to one another at defining polygonal borders. The contours of the refractive microlens' surface have rotational symmetry within each cell about an axis, with the symmetric contour maintaining its symmetry substantially at every surface point within the cell's borders. The microlens surface is fabricated by printing a contour into a photoresist using grey scale photolithography, then transferring the contour into an underlying refractive planarizing material, suitably by ion etching. The method produces a microlens array in which each microlens maintains its symmetric contour substantially across a polygonal cell, thus achieving almost unity fill factor without significant aberrations.