Characterization Of Molded Glass And Plastic Aspheric Lenses

Abstract

For many years, plastic lenses were used in applications where low cost optics were required. With improvements in materials, molding equipment, and aspheric technology, more recently they are being used in optical systems where high performance is required. Plastic offers advantages of low cost, reduced weight, high volume capacity and high lens to lens repeatability. There are, however, inherent limitations to these materials which can degrade performance. These can be particularly harmful if the system is required to function at other than ambient environmental conditions. With the commercialization of glass lens molding, low cost, high repeatability optics can be produced in glass. Here material limitations are not a concern. The glass lens molding process at Kodak accurately replicates the geometry, figure, and finish of the tool. With these options, the design engineer has increased flexability when selecting materials for optical components.