<title>Design and fabrication of diffractive optics at Eastman Kodak Company</title>

Abstract

Diffractive optics allow for increased optical performance, decreased size and weight, and decreased systems costs in numerous applications. Many types of optics can be fabricated using diffractive surfaces which are not possible, or not cost competitive, using standard refractive lenses. Diffractive optics technology has been developed at Kodak to the point where low cost, mass produced, plastic-molded diffractive optics are available on a commercial basis. Rotationally symmetric, aspheric, refractive/diffractive hybrid lenses have been injection molded in 100,000 part test runs and the lenses demonstrated consistent quality throughout the test. In this paper we will discuss design, analysis, and fabrication of diffractive optics for some typical applications. These applications include diffractive hybrid achromats for visual applications, such as fixed focus and zoom camera lenses, achromatized laser diode objectives, asymmetric anamorphic concentrating and spectral filtering lenses for rangefinding and autofocus applications, the use of diffractive optics in high quality, grayscale laser writers as beam deflectors and F(theta) lenses. Kodak's diamond turning capability for fabricating diffractive optics and our capacity for fabricating plastic injection mold tooling utilizing diamond turning is discussed. Finally, a discussion of our meteorology technology for examining diffractive surfaces will be discussed.