Custom-made micro-optic lens arrays

DORTMUND, GERMANY: Tiny, large and unique worldwide - the hallmark features of the process LIMO uses to manufacture micro-optics from glass wafers. The Dortmund-based company has recently begun fabricating square wafers with a 350 mm edge length.

Dortmund-based LIMO Lissotschenko Mikrooptik GmbH has long been taking a very versatile approach to micro-optics production. The manufacturing process, which the company says is the only one of its kind in the world, is remarkable particularly because the individual optics can be as large as the entire wafer or, after they have been separated, less than 1.0 mm in size, with the individual cylindrical lenses shaped as required.

This allows for a wide range of possible shapes, from aspheres right through to Fresnel lenses. Optical glass, crystals, ceramics, metals and semi-conductors (including CaF2, fused silica, ZnSe) can all serve as the raw material.