Molded Infrared Aspheres

Molded Infrared Aspheres

Precision Molding of Chalcogenide Lenses

High Volume Capacity, Fast Prototype Turnaround

AR, HDAR or Protective DLC Coatings

Overview

LightPath’s glass molding technology has led the market in the development and supply of molded aspheric lenses for over 25 years. Building on that experience, and on our in-house manufacturing of Infrared Chalcogenide glasses, Lightpath designs, produces and delivers molded aspheric infrared optics for both Imaging and Laser applications.

  • Based on materials from our Chalcogenide Glass Manufacturing
  • Fast turn around of prototypes
  • Easily transition from prototype phase to high-volume production
  • Molded lenses can be coated with our proprietary DLC protective coating

Typical Tolerances

Parameter Specification
Focal Length

± 1%

Center Thickness (CT)

± 0.025 mm

Outer Diameter (OD)

± 0.015 mm

Wedge

4 arcmin

Power/Irregularity

3/1 fringes

Surface Roughness

15nm

Surface Quality (scratch/dig)

40/20

Wave Front Error (RMS)

Diffraction Limited

Materials

Leveraging our extensive precision glass molding technology, Lightpath produces molded aspherical infrared lenses made of Chalcogenide glass. In addition to our long standing BD6 (As40Se60) and our BD2 (Ge28Sb12Se60) materials, Lightpath is also in the process of commercializing Chalcogenide glasses developed by Navy Research Labs. These materials will be commercially available in the near future.

For more information on our moldable Chalcogenide Glasses, visit our Chalcogenide Glass page.

Precision Optical Molding

Precision glass molding (PGM) is a high-temperature, isothermal, compression process conducted within a very controlled environment. LightPath has an extensive innovative history with glass molding and a uses a unique volumetric approach which eliminates the need for any post processing or edging since the exact volume of the glass (preform) is specifically matched to the final lens. We custom design and manufacture in our Orlando headquarters the lens specific molds and tooling from a variety of materials using a variety of in-house developed techniques. Our molding stations are also designed and customed in house which allows system reproducibility and process control with our single cavity press stations across our global manufacturing locations.

Coatings

Lightpath offers both standard, and custom optical coatings for its infrared prisms. Those include Anti Reflective (AR), High Durability AR, Spectral Filters, and protective Diamond Like Carbon (DLC) coatings.

All three of our global facilities are vertically integrated and include in-house coating and testing. For further information about available coatings please visit our coatings page or contact us.

Product Gallery

BD2 Molded Lens

390121 MIR BD2 Aspheric Lens with MWIR AR Coating

BD2 Collimating Lens with a MWIR AR Coating

BD2 QCL Collimating Lens with Diffractive Pattern, Coated with 8-12um AR Coating

BD6 Aspheric Lens with Diffractive Pattern Molded

BD6 Molded Lenses

Concave Molded BD6 Lenses

Molded BD6 Asphere

High NA Molded Chalcogenide Asphere

Plano Concave BD6 Molded Aspheric Lens

Molded, wide spectrum BD6 imaging lenses

QCL Collimating Lenses

1D Molded Lens Array for LWIR, made of BD6 Glass

Miniature BD6 Lenses

Molded BD6 Aspherical Lenses with Molded Diffractive Patterns for wideband Imaging in LWIR

Packaged Molded BD6 Lenses

Molded BD6 Lenses with Diffractive Patterns

Molded Plano Concave BD6 Lens for MWIR

Small Size BD6 and BD2 Lenses

391627IR6 Molded BD6 Lens with IR6 Coating

BD6 Aspheric Lens Molded into a Metal Holder

Downloads

Contact

Mark Palvino

VP Sales