Development of a fabrication process for production of diffractive optics.

In this study, a novel fabrication process, to the best of our knowledge, was developed to fabricate a glass harmonic diffractive lens. In this process, a polymethylmethacrylate master of the diffractive lens was machined using single-point diamond turning. Then an electrolytic plating process was conducted to grow a reverse nickel (Ni) mold. Precision compression molding was performed using the Ni mold to replicate the diffractive lens structures onto a glass surface. Surface measurements and optical testing show that the replicated diffractive lenses by the proposed method have high tolerances and require optical performance, demonstrating a high-volume, high-precision, and cost-effective process. The proposed method will be critical for consumer products where glass optics are increasingly used in lens assemblies.

Investigation of mid-infrared rapid heating of a carbide-bonded graphene coating and its applications in precision optical molding.

Graphene interacts with electromagnetic waves strongly in a wide range from ultra-violet to far-infrared, making the graphene coating suitable for a variety of applications. In this study, a novel localized rapid heating technique utilizing micro-patterned silicon stampers with carbide-bonded graphene coating, which directly heats up by absorbing mid-infrared light radiation, is implemented in rapid precision optical molding. The graphene network, as a functional coating to obtain thermal energy and improve the anti-adhesion of the mold surface, can heat up the mold surface rapidly (up to 18.16 K/s) and evenly above glass transition temperature over a large area within several seconds. Since the graphene coating was around tens of nanometers (∼45 nm) thick, the rapid precision surface molding process can be shortened into tens of seconds. Furthermore, the thermal response and repeatability of the graphene coated silicon wafer is investigated by repeated thermal cycling. This novel rapid precision surface molding technique is successfully tested to replicate grating structures and periodic patterns from silicon molds to thermoplastic substrates with high accuracy. Compared with conventional methods, this new approach can achieve much higher replication fidelity with a shorter cycle time and lower energy consumption.

Fabrication of Fresnel lens arrays by a rapid non-isothermal imprinting process.

Fresnel lens arrays are widely employed in concentrator photovoltaics, photonic devices, and integral imaging systems. In this study, a rapid non-isothermal imprinting process for Fresnel lens arrays was proposed. In this process, a heated mold with microstructures was momentarily pressed onto a thermoplastic polymer surface that was initially kept at room temperature. The microstructures of the mold can be copied completely to the polymer substrate by imprinting consecutively until a continuous surface Fresnel lens array is obtained. Different from more traditional molding processes, the substrate does not need to be heated and cooled repeatedly in the replicating process. In addition, the imprinting process is carried out at room temperature, which can greatly reduce the thermal cycle time and energy consumption. Generally speaking, the material flow and stress distribution of the substrate need to be monitored so that the microlenses with a high precision surface finish can be produced in the non-isothermal imprinting process. To verify this, the finite element method (FEM) model for the non-isothermal process was established, and the feasibility of this process was analyzed. A hexagonal continuous surface Fresnel lens array was then fabricated, and its geometrical contour and imaging performance were tested. The experimental results showed this new process could be an effective and low-cost optical fabrication technology for high-quality production of Fresnel lens arrays.

Precision glass molding of diffractive optical elements with high surface quality.

Diffractive optical surfaces have attractive properties for use in optical systems, like reducing weight and correcting for chromatic aberrations, but fabrication of high-quality glass diffractive optics is challenging, preventing it from being widely adopted in commercial applications. In this Letter, we report on a fabrication method to address molding challenges for high-surface-quality diffractive glass optics at molding temperatures up to 550°C, including selection of mold material, mold fabrication, precision glass molding, durability, and stability of the mold. To enable optimal mold machining and easy mold release, nickel phosphorous (NiP) is chosen as the plating material for its cutting performance and anti-adhesion properties, and copper-nickel C71500 (CuNi) is selected as the mold substrate because its coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) is close to NiP. By the proposed method, diffractive glass optics with 2 nm Sa surface roughness is demonstrated.

Manufacturing of a microlens array mold by a two-step method combining microindentation and precision polishing.

A novel two-step method for manufacturing microlens array molds by combining microindentation and precision polishing is proposed. Compared with conventional manufacturing methods, such as single-point diamond turning, this two-step method, as an alternative method, presents great advantages on cost and flexibility on spherical microlens array mold fabrication. Various curvatures of radii and arrangements for microlens array molds can be fabricated in the same way. In this paper, a hexagonal microlens array with 1.58 mm curvature radius was demonstrated to prove the feasibility of the proposed method. First, a large number of precise steel balls were organized in hexagonal arrangement and pressed into the mold's surface to generate multiple microdimples. Second, the pileups around the microdimples were removed from the mold surface by precision polishing. The geometrical accuracy and surface quality were investigated by an optical surface profiler. The measurement indicated that, compared with the initial surface, the surface inside the dimple had significantly higher hardness and better surface quality than that of the steel balls. Then the microlens array on the mold was further replicated to poly(methyl methacrylate) substrates by a precision compression molding process. The experimental results showed that the fabricated mold and the polymer replicas have high fidelity, great uniformity, and good surface roughness. The proposed two-step, low-cost mold fabrication method can produce highly uniform microlens arrays and is therefore suitable for high-volume fabrication of precise optical elements such as integrated light-emitting diodes and other similar micro-optics.

Fabrication of aspherical polymeric lenses using tunable ferrogel molds.

The majority of optical lenses have spherical surface profiles because they are convenient to fabricate. Replacing spherical optics with aspheric optics leads to smaller size, lighter weight, and less complicated optical systems with a superior imaging quality. However, fabrication of aspheric lenses is expensive and time-consuming. Here, we introduce a straightforward and low-cost casting method to fabricate polymeric aspheric lenses. An elastomeric ferrogel was formed into an aspherical profile by using a designed magnetic field and then was used as a mold. Different types of aspherical profiles from parabola to hyperbola can be formed with this method by tuning the magnetic field. A home-built Shack-Hartmann sensor was employed to characterize the cast polymeric lenses. The effects of magnetic field intensity, gradient of the magnetic field, and magnetic susceptibility of the ferrogel on the lens profiles were investigated. This technique can be used for rapid-forming polymeric aspherical lenses with different sizes and shapes.

Tonic B-cell receptor signaling in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

We used clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/Cas9-mediated genomic modification to investigate B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling in cell lines of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Three manipulations that altered BCR genes without affecting surface BCR levels showed that BCR signaling differs between the germinal center B-cell (GCB) subtype, which is insensitive to Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibition by ibrutinib, and the activated B-cell (ABC) subtype. Replacing antigen-binding BCR regions had no effect on BCR signaling in GCB-DLBCL lines, reflecting this subtype's exclusive use of tonic BCR signaling. Conversely, Y188F mutation in the immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif of CD79A inhibited tonic BCR signaling in GCB-DLBCL lines but did not affect their calcium flux after BCR cross-linking or the proliferation of otherwise-unmodified ABC-DLBCL lines. CD79A-GFP fusion showed BCR clustering or diffuse distribution, respectively, in lines of ABC and GCB subtypes. Tonic BCR signaling acts principally to activate AKT, and forced activation of AKT rescued GCB-DLBCL lines from knockout (KO) of the BCR or 2 mediators of tonic BCR signaling, SYK and CD19. The magnitude and importance of tonic BCR signaling to proliferation and size of GCB-DLBCL lines, shown by the effect of BCR KO, was highly variable; in contrast, pan-AKT KO was uniformly toxic. This discrepancy was explained by finding that BCR KO-induced changes in AKT activity (measured by gene expression, CXCR4 level, and a fluorescent reporter) correlated with changes in proliferation and with baseline BCR surface density. PTEN protein expression and BCR surface density may influence clinical response to therapeutic inhibition of tonic BCR signaling in DLBCL.

Fabrication of Plano-Concave Plastic Lens by Novel Injection Molding Using Carbide-Bonded Graphene-Coated Silica Molds.

Injection molding of plastic optical lenses prevails over many other techniques in both efficiency and cost, however polymer shrinkage during cooling, high level of uneven residual stresses and refractive index variations have limited its potential use for high precision lenses fabrication. In this research, we adopted a newly-developed strong graphene network to both plain and convex fused silica mold surfaces and proposed a novel injection molding of plano-concave lenses with graphene coated fused silica molds. The unique combination of the graphene coating and fused silica substrate maximize the mechanical properties of the mold and coating materials, namely high hardness, low surface friction, and high heat preservation effect during cooling since fused silica has low thermal conductivity. This advanced injection molding process was implemented in molding of plano-concave lenses resulting in reduced polymer shrinkage. In addition, internal residual stresses, and refractive index variations were also analyzed and discussed in detail. Meanwhile, as a comparison of conventional injection mold material, aluminum mold inserts with the same shape and size were also diamond machined and then employed to mold the same plano-concave lenses. Finally, a simulation model using Moldex3D was utilized to interpret stress distributions of both graphene and aluminum molds and then validated by experiments. The comparison between graphene and aluminum molds reveals that the novel injection molding with carbide-bonded graphene coated fused silica mold inserts is capable of molding high quality optical lenses with much less shrinkage and residual stresses, but more uniform refractive index distribution.

Investigation of thermoforming mechanism and optical properties' change of chalcogenide glass in precision glass molding.

Chalcogenide glasses are emerging as enabling materials for low-cost infrared optics due to their transparency in shortwave-to-longwave infrared bands and the possibility to be mass produced by precision glass molding (PGM), a near net-shape process. This paper aims to evaluate the thermoforming mechanism of As40S60 glass around its glass transition temperature (Tg) and investigate its refractive index change and residual stresses in a molded lens during and after PGM. First, a constitutive model was introduced to precisely predict the material behavior in PGM by integrating subroutines into a commercial finite element analysis (FEA) software. This modeling approach utilizes the Williams-Landel-Ferry equation and Tool-Narayanaswamy-Moynihan model to describe stress relaxation and structural relaxation behaviors, respectively. The numerical simulation revealed that the cooling rate above glass transition temperature (Tg) can introduce large geometry deviations to the molded optical lens. The residual stresses in a molded lens are generated mainly at the temperature around Tg due to the heterogeneity of thermal expansion from viscoelastic to solid state, while structural relaxation occurs during the entire cooling process. The refractive index variations inside molded lenses were predicted by performing finite element method simulation and further evaluated by measuring wavefront changes using an infrared Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor, while the residual stresses trapped inside the molded lenses were obtained by using a birefringence method. A combination of measurements of the molded infrared lenses and numerical simulation results provided an opportunity for optical manufacturers to better understand the mechanism and optical performance of chalcogenide glasses during and after PGM.

Fabrication of an infrared Shack-Hartmann sensor by combining high-speed single-point diamond milling and precision compression molding processes.

A novel fabrication method by combining high-speed single-point diamond milling and precision compression molding processes for fabrication of discontinuous freeform microlens arrays was proposed. Compared with slow tool servo diamond broaching, high-speed single-point diamond milling was selected for its flexibility in the fabrication of true 3D optical surfaces with discontinuous features. The advantage of single-point diamond milling is that the surface features can be constructed sequentially by spacing the axes of a virtual spindle at arbitrary positions based on the combination of rotational and translational motions of both the high-speed spindle and linear slides. By employing this method, each micro-lenslet was regarded as a microstructure cell by passing the axis of the virtual spindle through the vertex of each cell. An optimization arithmetic based on minimum-area fabrication was introduced to the machining process to further increase the machining efficiency. After the mold insert was machined, it was employed to replicate the microlens array onto chalcogenide glass. In the ensuing optical measurement, the self-built Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor was proven to be accurate in detecting an infrared wavefront by both experiments and numerical simulation. The combined results showed that precision compression molding of chalcogenide glasses could be an economic and precision optical fabrication technology for high-volume production of infrared optics.

Investigation of index change in compression molding of As40Se50S10 chalcogenide glass.

Chalcogenide glasses are emerging as alternative materials for low-cost and high-volume glass molding processes for infrared optics. In precision glass molding, it is well documented that the refractive index variation in the molded elements can lead to substantial amounts of aberrations. The variation has such a significant effect that the optical designs with molded lenses need to be carefully considered and compensated for index variation to achieve targeted optical performance. This research is aimed to evaluate the refractive index change of a chalcogenide glass during the molding process by both finite element method-based simulation and optical experiment. First, a set of mold inserts was designed and machined by high-speed single-point diamond milling. The structure of the lower mold insert was semiclosed and detachable, which facilitated the molded infrared prisms' release from the mold. Second, finite element method simulation was implemented to predict the refractive index change during the cooling phase by using the Tool-Narayanaswamy-Moynihan model for structural relaxation behavior. It was confirmed that refractive index variation occurred inside the molded wedge due to rapid thermal cycling. However, the amount of variation in the molded element indicates that the refractive index change during the molding process was not uniform. Finally, the refractive index of the molded wedge was measured by an optical setup. The results showed that the index shift is approximately -0.0226 for As40Se50S10, which matched the numerical result by simulation. Compared with oxide glass materials, the index drop of As40Se50S10 has a significant effect on optical performance of molded optics, and the postmolding refractive index should be taken into account in the optical design. In summary, the results presented in this article provided reliable references for refractive index change of As40Se50S10 glass, crucial for precision glass molding or similar applications.

Rapid localized heating of graphene coating on a silicon mold by induction for precision molding of polymer optics.

In compression molding of polymer optical components with micro/nanoscale surface features, rapid heating of the mold surface is critical for the implementation of this technology for large-scale applications. In this Letter, a novel method of a localized rapid heating process is reported. This process is based on induction heating of a thin conductive coating deposited on a silicon mold. Since the graphene coating is very thin (∼45 nm), a high heating rate of 10∼20°C/s can be achieved by employing a 1200 W 30 kHz electrical power unit. Under this condition, the graphene-coated surface and the polymer substrate can be heated above the polymer's glass transition temperature within 30 s and subsequently cooled down to room temperature within several tens of seconds after molding, resulting in an overall thermal cycle of about 3 min or shorter. The feasibility of this process was validated by fabrication of optical gratings, micropillar matrices, and microlens arrays on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) substrates with very high precision. The uniformity and surface geometries of the replicated optical elements are evaluated using an optical profilometer, a diffraction test setup, and a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor built with a molded PMMA microlens array. Compared with the conventional bulk heating molding process, this novel rapid localized induction heating process could improve replication efficiency with better geometrical fidelity.

Design, fabrication, and testing of a Shack-Hartmann sensor with an automatic registration feature.

In this research, design, construction, and testing of an innovative Shack-Hartmann sensor are described. As the most critical component, a polymer microlens array is injection molded and mounted on a board-level CMOS camera such that the focal plane of the microlens array is on the camera's image plane. To allow for automatic registration of the spots of the measured area, a diffusing surface was created at the center of the lens array in the same diamond machining process in an uninterrupted operation. This unique diffusing surface does not generate an image spot. The no-spot feature functions as the reference in the measurement on the camera's image plane. Using this unique feature, large global tip-tilt error can be detected and eliminated. In this research, both experiments and simulation have shown that the Shack-Hartmann sensor built using low cost components is capable of precision wavefront detection. This research also demonstrated that automatic registration based on the diffusing surface is simple and reliable.

Optical performance simulation of free-form optics for an eye implant based on a measurement data enhanced model.

This paper describes the application of a modeling approach for precise optical performance prediction of free-form optics-based subsystems on a demonstration model of an eye implant. The simulation model is enhanced by surface data measured on the free-form lens parts. The manufacturing of the free-form lens parts is realized by two different manufacturing processes: ultraprecision diamond machining and microinjection molding. Evaluation of both processes is conducted by a simulation of the optical performance on the basis of their surface measurement comparisons with the nominal geometry. The simulation results indicate that improvements from the process optimization of microinjection molding were obtained for the best manufacturing accuracy.

Laser induced periodic surface structure formation in germanium by strong field mid IR laser solid interaction at oblique incidence.

Laser induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS or ripples) were generated on single crystal germanium after irradiation with multiple 3 µm femtosecond laser pulses at a 45° angle of incidence. High and low spatial frequency LIPSS (HSFL and LSFL, respectively) were observed for both s- and p-polarized light. The measured LSFL period for p-polarized light was consistent with the currently established LIPSS origination model of coupling between surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) and the incident laser pulses. A vector model of SPP coupling is introduced to explain the formation of s-polarized LSFL away from the center of the damage spot. Additionally, a new method is proposed to determine the SPP propagation length from the decay in ripple depth. This is used along with the measured LSFL period to estimate the average electron density and Drude collision time of the laser-excited surface. Finally, full-wave electromagnetic simulations are used to corroborate these results while simultaneously offering insight into the nature of LSFL formation.

Fabrication of microinjection-molded miniature freeform Alvarez lenses.

Microinjection molding is a mass production method to fabricate affordable optical components. However, the intense nature of this process often results in part deformation and uneven refractive index distribution. These two factors limit the precision of replicated optics. In order to understand the influences of injection molding on freeform optical devices, in this study, finite element method (FEM) was employed to investigate the miniature microinjection-molded Alvarez lenses. In addition, an innovative metrology setup was proposed to evaluate the optical wavefront patterns in the molded lenses using an interferometer-based wavefront measurement system. This measurement setup utilized an optical matching liquid to reduce or eliminate the lenses' surface power such that the wavefront pattern with large deviation from the freeform lenses can be measured by a regular wavefront setup. The FEM simulation results were also used to explain the differences between the nominal and experimentally measured wavefront patterns of the microinjection-molded Alvarez lenses. In summary, the proposed method combining simulation and wavefront measurements is shown to be an effective approach for studying injection molding of freeform optics.

Development of a low cost high precision three-layer 3D artificial compound eye.

Artificial compound eyes are typically designed on planar substrates due to the limits of current imaging devices and available manufacturing processes. In this study, a high precision, low cost, three-layer 3D artificial compound eye consisting of a 3D microlens array, a freeform lens array, and a field lens array was constructed to mimic an apposition compound eye on a curved substrate. The freeform microlens array was manufactured on a curved substrate to alter incident light beams and steer their respective images onto a flat image plane. The optical design was performed using ZEMAX. The optical simulation shows that the artificial compound eye can form multiple images with aberrations below 11 µm; adequate for many imaging applications. Both the freeform lens array and the field lens array were manufactured using microinjection molding process to reduce cost. Aluminum mold inserts were diamond machined by the slow tool servo method. The performance of the compound eye was tested using a home-built optical setup. The images captured demonstrate that the proposed structures can successfully steer images from a curved surface onto a planar photoreceptor. Experimental results show that the compound eye in this research has a field of view of 87°. In addition, images formed by multiple channels were found to be evenly distributed on the flat photoreceptor. Additionally, overlapping views of the adjacent channels allow higher resolution images to be re-constructed from multiple 3D images taken simultaneously.

Graphene-coated Si mold for precision glass optics molding.

Despite many attractive properties and well-developed micro/nano manufacturing technologies based on silicon (Si) wafers, severe adhesions between Si and glass at high temperature have limited its application as a mold material in precision glass molding. In this Letter, a coating using carbide-bonded graphene is introduced to build nonstick Si molds for glass molding. The coating has extraordinary mechanical properties and can effectively prevent Si-glass adhesion under high temperature. We demonstrated fabrications of a Fresnel lens and glass parts with micrometer pillars using graphene-coated Si molds. This newly developed process enables the use of Si as a mold material to fabricate sophisticated structures with high-precision dimensions that was not previously available. This technology will greatly improve precision glass molding process and allow high-precision low-cost glass optics to be manufactured in large quantity.

Simulation and measurement of optical aberrations of injection molded progressive addition lenses.

Injection molding is an important mass-production tool in the optical industry. In this research our aim is to develop a process of combining ultraprecision diamond turning and injection molding to create a unique low-cost manufacturing process for progressive addition lenses (PALs). In industry, it is a well-known fact that refractive index variation and geometric deformation of injection molded lenses due to the rheological properties of polymers will distort their optical performance. To address this problem, we developed a method for determining the optical aberrations of the injection molded PALs. This method involves reconstructing the wavefront pattern in the presence of uneven refractive index distribution and surface warpage using a finite element method. In addition to numerical modeling, a measurement system based on a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor was used to verify the modeling results. The measured spherocylindrical powers and aberrations of the PALs were in good agreement with the model. Consequently, the optical aberrations of injection molded PALs were successfully predicted by finite element modeling. In summary, it was demonstrated in this study that numerically based optimization for PAL manufacturing is feasible.

Comparison of progressive addition lenses by direct measurement of surface shape.

PURPOSE: To compare the optical properties of five state-of-the-art progressive addition lenses (PALs) by direct physical measurement of surface shape. METHODS: Five contemporary freeform PALs (Varilux Comfort Enhanced, Varilux Physio Enhanced, Hoya Lifestyle, Shamir Autograph, and Zeiss Individual) with plano distance power and a +2.00-diopter add were measured with a coordinate measuring machine. The front and back surface heights were physically measured, and the optical properties of each surface, and their combination, were calculated with custom MATLAB routines. Surface shape was described as the sum of Zernike polynomials. Progressive addition lenses were represented as contour plots of spherical equivalent power, cylindrical power, and higher order aberrations (HOAs). Maximum power rate, minimum 1.00-DC corridor width, percentage of lens area with less than 1.00 DC, and root mean square of HOAs were also compared. RESULTS: Comfort Enhanced and Physio Enhanced have freeform front surfaces, Shamir Autograph and Zeiss Individual have freeform back surfaces, and Hoya Lifestyle has freeform properties on both surfaces. However, the overall optical properties are similar, regardless of the lens design. The maximum power rate is between 0.08 and 0.12 diopters per millimeter and the minimum corridor width is between 8 and 11 mm. For a 40-mm lens diameter, the percentage of lens area with less than 1.00 DC is between 64 and 76%. The third-order Zernike terms are the dominant high-order terms in HOAs (78 to 93% of overall shape variance). Higher order aberrations are higher along the corridor area and around the near zone. The maximum root mean square of HOAs based on a 4.5-mm pupil size around the corridor area is between 0.05 and 0.06 µm. CONCLUSIONS: This nonoptical method using a coordinate measuring machine can be used to evaluate a PAL by surface height measurements, with the optical properties directly related to its front and back surface designs.