Tolerancing of single point diamond turned diffractive optical elements and optical surfaces

Abstract

Single point diamond turning is now gaining increasing importance with the production of the surfaces for different optical systems such as infrared systems, the prototype production of camera phones or head mounted displays featuring plastic lenses, or master manufacturing for the injection moulding of plastic lenses for mass products. Tolerances which occur during single point diamond turning of aspheric surfaces and diffractive elements or during polar coordinate laser plotting of computer-generated holograms will be examined. In both cases we expect similar tolerances, because the work piece is rotated in both diamond turning and laser plotting. The objective is to understand the typical tolerances and to simulate their influence on the aberrations in the optical system.