Lens Design & Manufacture

Lens Design
Ray_Diagram

IC Optix vision aids are powered by ultra-thin film magnifier lenses. The design of an ultra-thin film magnifier lens begins with computer modeling of a micro-structured lens providing the desired optical lens prescription. The lens design is transferred from the digital world into the physical world using a high precision diamond engraving process. A Master tool with exact facet angles, depths, and spacing is created for the manufacture of a high quality optical lens.

Lens Manufacture

To achieve high volume, low cost production of the lens, the Master tool engraving is replicated and ganged on a cylinder which is used to produce a lens array using a reel to reel manufacturing process. The process is very flexible and allows for customization of the lens size, shape, thickness, and optical prescription. Typical lens thickness is 50 to 75 microns depending upon requirements of the final application.

The images below depict a master tool being engraved, a finished master, and a lens array during the manufacturing process. The lens array is slit, wound on reels, and subsequently converted into form factors that provide convenient vision aids including magnifier labels and scrolling magnifier devices such as pens.

**Diamond Engraving –**The creation of an ultra-thin film magnifier lens begins with the computer modeling of (read more…)

**Lens Array –**To achieve high volume, low cost production of the lens, the Master tool engraving is (read more…)

Did you know…

By the age of 40 nearly everyone begins to experience difficulty focusing on objects at close distances¹.

Over 25% of the worlds population, (1.8 billion people!) require close vision correction due to presbyopia (aging eyes)².

_{1. American Optometric Association}
_{2. Centre for Vision in the Developing World (Oxford University)}