Single Point Diamond Turning
Asphera’s Single Point Diamond Turning (SPDT) offers the highest precision for manufacturing complex aspherical shapes. SPDT is mostly known for fabricating micro-optics with features down to 1 micron in size. SPDT replaces the standard lathe with a diamond tip bit to achieve surface roughness of only a few nanometers. Advantages: Offers the highest lens shape accuracy without any high tooling costs - only tooling required is the diamond bit Disadvantages: High reject rate, long lead times, not suitable for mass production
CNC Polished Glass Aspheres
Computer Numerical Control (CNC) polishing is the most efficient method of asphere fabrication. it relies on the traditional optics technique of plishing one lens at a time on a computer-controlled platform that adjusts the shape on a spindle, spinning the lens at a high speed to reach the desired surface profile. Our 5 axis machine is 3-5x faster than traditional CNC polished aspheres. This technique is chosen for its high precision, reliability, and capabilities with wide ranges of size and materials. For volume cost and speed, it is best for diameters between 30-50mm.
Precision Glass Molding
The ideal asphere is a ground prototype design that is machined and then transferred to a mold for production. Precision Glass Molding (PGM) is a fabricating a mold from a thermally and physically durable material created with an optical quality surface profile that accounts for shrinkage as the glass cools. PMG is the best choice for high volume production runs with with little compromise in quality compared to SPDT and polishing.

Balcony

Asphera has a long history of working with high-precision UV-IR (193nm to 50μm) components (windows, wedges, domes, waveplates, prisms, blanks…) for research and development as well as industrial applications.
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