Ductile grinding of ultraprecise aspherical optical lenses

Aspheres - revolutionary system design, complex manufacturing process. This short description characterizes the current situation in the field of aspherical glass lenses. Whilst aspheres unquestionably present advantages, such as the reduction in the number of parts in the beam path, the resultant increase in light intensity and lower lens weight, the manufacture of objectives of this nature, is beset by problems. Time consuming correction-polishing operations required in conventional manufacturing sequences, increase the cost of the process, particularly when small batch sizes are concerned.