Precision Glass Molding of Freeform Optics

Gurganus, Dustin; Novak, Spencer; Symmons, Alan; Davies, Matthew A.

doi:10.1364/freeform.2019.jw1a.4

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Especially, the restrained demands on the mold material for texturing fused silica glass should improve throughput. 55 However, the process is so far limited to fused silica glass and many other optical glasses are not yet accessible.…”

Section: ■ Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The functionalization of LG presented in this work can potentially be extended to superhydrophobic, superhydrophilic fused silica glass surfaces by applying various textures. ,,, Moreover, the high replication quality of LG enables the implementation of nanophotonic structures such as Mie scatterers for structural colors , or scattering patterns for increased photon harvesting in PV. ,, In general, LG opens up a facile alternative to fabricate advanced fused silica optics for optical applications other than precision glass molding. Especially, the restrained demands on the mold material for texturing fused silica glass should improve throughput . However, the process is so far limited to fused silica glass and many other optical glasses are not yet accessible.…”

Section: Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Liquid Glass for Photovoltaics: Multifunctional Front Cover Glass for Solar Modules

Langenhorst

Ritzer

Kotz

et al. 2019

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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Advanced optical concepts, making use of tailored microstructured front cover glasses, promise to reduce the losses encountered with encapsulated solar modules. However, implementing optical concepts into the conventional architecture of encapsulated solar modules and simultaneously maintaining high durability represent a severe technological challenge. The liquid glass technique offers a route to meet this challenge by enabling the implementation of these optical concepts directly into the durable front cover glass of solar modules. In this work, we demonstrate for the first time two showcases of texturing fused silica front cover glass, using the facile liquid glass technique: (I) multifunctional microcone textures that reduce front-side reflection losses by ∼80% compared to a planar reference, which correlates to an increase in short-circuit current density of encapsulated planar monocrystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells by 2.9 mA cm −2 , and exhibit strong hydrophilic behavior facilitating selfcleaning and (II) embedded freeform surface cloaks that redirect incident light away from the metallic contact grids of the solar cell and demonstrate a cloaking efficiency of ∼88%.

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Section: ■ Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid Glass for Photovoltaics: Multifunctional Front Cover Glass for Solar Modules

Langenhorst

Ritzer

Kotz

et al. 2019

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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“…The surface roughness was achieved for mould and the freeform optics are on average R a 2 nm and RMS 3 nm. The form errors of the mould have a direct effect on the optical surface, and the overall form error of the mould was found to be 4.6 µm [196]. Zhang et al described the precision glass moulding for moulding diffractive structures [192].…”

Section: Glass Mouldingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in the design and manufacturing of novel freeform optics

Kumar

Tong

Jiang

2022

Int. J. Extrem. Manuf.

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Freeform optics has become the most prominent element of the optics industry. Advanced freeform optical designs supplementary to ultra-precision manufacturing and metrology techniques have upgraded the lifestyle, thinking, and observing power of existing humans. Imaginations related to space explorations, portability, accessibility have also witnessed sensible in today’s time with freeform optics. Present-day design methods and fabrications techniques applicable in the development of freeform optics and the market requirements are focussed and explained with the help of traditional and non-traditional optical applications. Over the years, significant research is performed in the emerging field of freeform optics, but no standards are established yet in terms of tolerances and definitions. We critically review the optical design methods for freeform optics considering the image forming and non-image forming applications. Numerous subtractive manufacturing technologies including figure correction methods and metrology have been developed to fabricate extreme modern freeform optics to satisfy the demands of various applications such as space, astronomy, earth science, defence, biomedical, material processing, surveillance, and many more. We described a variety of advanced technologies in manufacturing and metrology for novel freeform optics. Next, we also covered the manufacturing-oriented design scheme for advanced optics. We conclude this review with an outlook on the future of freeform optics design, manufacturing and metrology.

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“…Currently, a wealth of fabrication methods exists whose variety provide improved fabrication of freeform surfaces. Such methods include computer numeric controlled (CNC) machining using a diamond tip tool, sub-aperture polishing using a magnetorheological fluid (MRF), molded optics, precision polishing, and more [1][2][3][4][5]. In verifying the freeform shape generated, two commonly utilized non-contact optical metrology methods for a unit under test (UUT) are interferometry and deflectometry [6,7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infinite deflectometry enabling 2π-steradian measurement range

Graves¹,

Quach²,

Choi³

et al. 2019

Opt. Express

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We present a novel deflectometry implementation termed Infinite Deflectometry. The technique provides a full aperture surface reconstruction sag map of freeform surfaces, including previously challenging to measure optics such as highly convex surfaces. The method relies on the creation of a virtual source enclosure around the tested optic, which creates a virtual 2π-steradian measurement range. To demonstrate the performance, a fast f/1.26 convex optical surface was measured with a commercial interferometer and with the Infinite Deflectometry system. After removing Zernike terms 1 through 37, the metrology tests resulted in absolute RMS surface values of 18.48 nm and 16.26 nm, respectively. Additionally, a freeform Alvarez lens was measured with the new technique and measured 22.34 m of surface sag RMS after piston, tip/tilt, and defocus had been removed. The result deviated by 488 nm RMS from a profilometer measurement while standard interferometry failed to measure the Alvarez lens due to its non-nulled wavefront dynamic range limitation.

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Precision Glass Molding of Freeform Optics

Cited by 3 publications

References 1 publication

Liquid Glass for Photovoltaics: Multifunctional Front Cover Glass for Solar Modules

Liquid Glass for Photovoltaics: Multifunctional Front Cover Glass for Solar Modules

Advances in the design and manufacturing of novel freeform optics

Infinite deflectometry enabling 2π-steradian measurement range

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