APPARATUS AND PROCESS FOR PRODUCING PLANO-CONVEX SILICONE-ON-GLASS LENS ARRAYS

摘要

Coating a machined mold with a flowable, hardenable polymer coating produces an optically-smooth finish and maintains sharpness in upward-pointing features. These procedures produce molds for highly efficient plano-convex silicone-on-glass lens arrays in a fast and inexpensive manner in which an end-mill defines the shape of a lens, and the coating produces its smoothness. End-mill machining and coating lens-shaped features in plates that have movable pins produce molds with eject features disposed inside features that form templates for lens elements without significantly reducing optical performance. Additionally, machining and coating plates that have movable inserts produce molds for lens arrays with reduced volume and one or several rings in each lens element.