<title>Mounting, cementing, and handling of micro-optical elements</title>

Abstract

The greatest hinderence to wider applications of micro-optics is the inefficience of the mounting process. Currently there are attempts to remedy this through transferring the know-how from the manufacture of great repeater lenses etc. into the microoptical technology. Additional there are necessary new methods for handling and exact positioning. The discussed mounting equipment consists in a six-axis robot, some special developed grippers, a working station for the adjustment and a dosage device (ink-jet and stamp-transfer technique). In future some ideas for special equipments of precision mounting are to be realized. The range of accuracy contents about 0.5-5 jim and some arcsec. OUTLINEMicrooptical elements (MO) are situated in another world than the well known macroscopical lenses, prisms, gratings, illuminators and detectors. For instance such delicate microoptical set ups as planar detecting structures or many little prisms can be generated on a wafer. The difference of microoptics to conventional optics is caused by:. the small dimension of MO . the sharp range of geometrical tolerances, especially the orientation ofthe components in a order ofO.1 jimuptol jim . the chance to make some types of microoptics "in use" by direct structuring on a wafer . special problems of handling . the materials. Microoptics are often made of polymeres and have a refractive index gradient. . test and control equipments are not available . the sensitivity to damage, splintering problems, little bubbles forming . the influence of adhesives is extreme.Microoptic systems also differ from micro-electronic systems due to the three-dimensional structure of the MO. The fabrication of micro-electronic chips is a high level and effective standardized process and includes bonding and housing. Conventionally optical elements are produced piece by piece. There are exceptions like the fabrication of little prisms on a wafer or the application of photolithographical and coating processes for making laser diodes or edging of micromechanical parts. In contrast to this one of the MO assemblies are built by a hybrid technique uneffectively and manually with great man power. Therefore the mounting process of MO is the task number one for R&D1. 0-8194-2169-31961$6.0O SPIE Vol. 2783 1105 Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 06/22/2016 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx