ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of manufacturing techniques that are used for optical components such as lenses, mirrors, prisms, and windows. It is the goal of this chapter to help the optical design engineer understand basic fabrication issues to make good design decisions. We hope to educate the optical system engineer about manufacturing tradeoffs, so he knows to discuss particular issues of the project with the optician. It is only through the communication between the designer and the fabricator that the optimal specifications can be developed and implemented.
The field of optical fabrication is too broad to be covered completely in a single publication. This chapter assists the optical engineer in understanding fabrication issues by providing a description of the common procedures that are used for making optics, a list of references for more detailed study, and insight into the relationships between quantity, quality, tolerances, material properties, and cost for fabrication of optical elements.
This chapter covers the basics of optical fabrication, with an introduction to more advanced topics, including the following:
overview of the traditional methods of optical fabrication.
modern methods for fabricating aspheric surfaces.
guidelines for some relationships between fabrication methods and cost.
