Background <p>Photocurable resins are widely used in industrial production, but the polymerization shrinkage that occurs during their curing process generates adverse polymerization shrinkage stresses within the material and at the interface between the material and the substrate, which can affect the performance of the photocurable resin material.</p> Objective <p>Measuring the polymerization shrinkage and the associated shrinkage stress not only allows for the evaluation of the material’s performance but also helps to research and develop the photocurable resin. Furthermore, it could help to analyze the failure mechanisms of the service process of the resin and enables the active control of polymerization shrinkage stress.</p> Methods <p>We employ Digital Image Correlation to actively measure the polymerization shrinkage of photocurable resins. Basing on the experimental results, multi-physics simulation analysis was conducted, successfully establishing a curing model for photocurable resins.</p> Results <p>The measurement results indicate that increasing the amount of photoinitiator reduces polymerization shrinkage stress, changes in ultraviolet light incident energy do not significantly affect the polymerization shrinkage stress. For simulation’s results, the maximum error in stress–strain comparison between the simulation model and the experimental model is no more than 10%, with the minimum error being 2.7%, confirming the accuracy of the simulation model.</p> Conclusion <p>The contactless characterization technique successfully measures polymer shrinkage strain and the simulation’s curing model for photocurable resins shows high agreement of experiment, which provides insights for the experimental design and theoretical study of shrinkage stress in photocurable resins. It offers some reference for the design of photocurable resin used in electronic packaging.</p>