| The objective of the research is to extend the limits of current optical production techniques for complex, thermally-stable, precise optical components produced in large volume. Injection molding is a high volume process, but is not well understood on this scale. Additionally, polymer can be formed into complex and intricate shapes, but the high coefficient of thermal expansion has prevented the widespread use of polymer for precision optics. For injection molding to become a viable process for the production of meso and micro optics, it is necessary for these challenges to be addressed.; The goals of this research address the aforementioned challenges on two fronts (1) injection molding of polymer lenses, and (2) molding of polymer elements directly onto stable substrates. The first is through an increased understanding of the injection molding process in the replication of micro optics. Precision molds were produced with optical features of varying size, shape, step height, and aspect ratio. These features included spherical and fresnel lenses, blaze diffraction grating, and wedding cake. The pitch of the features was as small as 10μm and step heights as small as 1.25μm. A screening design of experiment was performed to discover the molding factors (process variables) with the greatest effect on the replication of micro optics. These experiments showed mold temperature and screw rotation speed to have the greatest effects on the accurate replication of meso and micro optics.; The second challenge, the thermal instability of polymer lenses, has been addressed through research of the co-molding these optics directly onto thermally stable substrates. Challenges included the modification of properties at the polymer-substrate interface, the large mismatch in coefficients of thermal expansion between the polymer and the substrate, and mold design factors for using a brittle substrate material in the mold. In the experiments, interface adhesion was found to be increased through the use of organofunctional silanes, and co-molding experiments revealed that acrylic lenses had the best adhesion to specially cleaned soda lime glass. |
