Injection molding of high-precision optical lenses: A review

The global energy market is seeing increases in the electricity demand of a couple of percentage points annually. The photovoltaic (PV) industry is also growing rapidly every year. One of the PV technologies is concentrator photovoltaics (CPV). CPV uses high‐efficiency multijunction solar cells and optics to concentrate sunlight, thereby significantly reducing the amount of semiconductor material needed. Yet, due to the high upfont manufacturing cost of CPV, it currently does not offer a competitive price against silicon PV. With this a new branch is introduced to the industry, micro‐CPV, which can be broadly explained as the miniaturization of the solar cells and optical components. The motivation for micro‐CPV is lowering the cost by decreasing the material volume and enabling new system architectures and high‐throughput manufacturing methods, while still maintaining high electrical efficiencies, taking advantage of a lower thermal load, shorter optical paths, lower resistive losses, and lower material volumes. Herein, a comprehensive review of the technological advances is presented, key synergies between micro‐CPV and other industries sharing similar challenges are identified, exemplified by micro‐light emitting diodes display manufacturing. New assembly process development in these industries will facilitate commercial adoption of micro‐CPV with continued miniaturization while driving down the cost.

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“…The molds for plastic molding are customarily manufactured by UPM, but other machining mechanisms are also used as showcased in ref. [145].…”

Section: New Enabling Technologies For Micro Cpvmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated Micro‐Scale Concentrating Photovoltaics: A Scalable Path Toward High‐Efficiency, Low‐Cost Solar Power

Jost

Juejun

et al. 2023

Solar RRL

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“…The compact design of these miniaturized optical systems is made possible using spherical and aspherical lenses made of glass or polymer. Compared to purely spherical components, aspheric lenses, typically manufactured by plastic injection molding [1] or precision glass molding [2] processes, reduce the number of individual com-ponents required while maintaining the same optical performance. However, the optical function of these systems can only be guaranteed if the properties of the individual components meet the manufacturing specifications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fast, semi-automated geometric and functional characterization of miniaturized lenses using optical coherence tomography-based systems and wavefront sensors

Velazquez Iturbide,

Schmitt

2023

Tenth European Seminar on Precision Optics Manufacturing

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“…This is a significant advantage, as the product design can be modified to the consumer and market needs during the product development stage. However, the majority of mechanical, medical and optical components are still being manufactured by replication and injection moulding processes that enable the use of application-specific materials and convenience in upscaling (Bibber, 2012; Peixoto et al , 2022). This is done through labour-intensive and expensive mould tools that require significant investments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid tooling: investigation of soft-tooled micro-injection moulding process characteristics using in-line measurements and surface metrology

Gülçür

Couling

Goodship

et al. 2023

RPJ

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Purpose The purpose of this study is to demonstrate and characterise a soft-tooled micro-injection moulding process through in-line measurements and surface metrology using a data-intensive approach. Design/methodology/approach A soft tool for a demonstrator product that mimics the main features of miniature components in medical devices and microsystem components has been designed and fabricated using material jetting technique. The soft tool was then integrated into a mould assembly on the micro-injection moulding machine, and mouldings were made. Sensor and data acquisition devices including thermal imaging and injection pressure sensing have been set up to collect data for each of the prototypes. Off-line dimensional characterisation of the parts and the soft tool have also been carried out to quantify the prototype quality and dimensional changes on the soft tool after the manufacturing cycles. Findings The data collection and analysis methods presented here enable the evaluation of the quality of the moulded parts in real-time from in-line measurements. Importantly, it is demonstrated that soft-tool surface temperature difference values can be used as reliable indicators for moulding quality. Reduction in the total volume of the soft-tool moulding cavity was detected and quantified up to 100 cycles. Data collected from in-line monitoring was also used for filling assessment of the soft-tool moulding cavity, providing about 90% accuracy in filling prediction with relatively modest sensors and monitoring technologies. Originality/value This work presents a data-intensive approach for the characterisation of soft-tooled micro-injection moulding processes for the first time. The overall results of this study show that the product-focussed data-rich approach presented here proved to be an essential and useful way of exploiting additive manufacturing technologies for soft-tooled rapid prototyping and new product introduction.

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Injection molding of high-precision optical lenses: A review

Cited by 36 publications

References 212 publications

Integrated Micro‐Scale Concentrating Photovoltaics: A Scalable Path Toward High‐Efficiency, Low‐Cost Solar Power

Integrated Micro‐Scale Concentrating Photovoltaics: A Scalable Path Toward High‐Efficiency, Low‐Cost Solar Power

Fast, semi-automated geometric and functional characterization of miniaturized lenses using optical coherence tomography-based systems and wavefront sensors

Rapid tooling: investigation of soft-tooled micro-injection moulding process characteristics using in-line measurements and surface metrology

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