Fabrication of aspherical polymer lenses using a tunable liquid-filled mold

We demonstrated a tunable molding process to fabricate aspherical polymer lenses that can reduce aberrations and the total length of an optical system. Radius of curvature and conic constant are shown to be the key parameters to characterize the lens profile. The good agreement between the measured profiles and the simulated profiles allows us to design and fabricate lenses of a wide range of user-specified properties. Compared to the conventional aspherical lens fabrication method using injection molding with a diamond-turned mold, the proposed method may yield savings in time and cost.