Although it has been known for centuries that spherical geometry is not optimal for refracting light, the expense of fabricating aspheric surfaces has inhibited their use. With the breakthrough of LightPath’s glass molding technology, this optimal lens geometry has become a reality.
In many of these applications, the material of choice is optical glass because of its durability and performance stability over a wide environmental range. High power transmittance is also an added advantage.
LightPath can extend the range of optimization on a lens by molding a diffractive pattern in the surface of the lens. This allows for a greater range of wavelength optimization and better achromatic performance. Lenses can be molded directly into metallic holders, allowing the lenses to be welded or soldered into the package and eliminating the need to use epoxy.
LightPath offers a variety of multilayer broadband coatings to reduce the back reflection from a nominal 6% for uncoated lenses. The choice of which AR coating is appropriate depends on the type of glass the lens is made from and the wavelength at which the lens will be used.
By utilizing LightPath’s molded lens technology, it is now possible to manufacture lens arrays with high precision. Unlike etched lens arrays, where there is a great deal of non-uniformity from array to array, molding will consistently produce the same structure and performance from prototype to large production builds