Tolerancing of single point diamond turned diffractive optical elements and optical surfaces

Single point diamond turning has an increasing importance with the production of the surfaces for different optical systems such as infrared systems, prototype production of mobile phone cameras or head mounted displays with plastic lenses or master manufacturing for the injection moulding of plastic lenses for mass products. Tolerances which occur during single point diamond turning of aspheric surfaces and diffractive elements or during polar coordinate laser plotting of Computer-generated holograms will be treated. In both cases we expect similar tolerances, because the work piece is rotated in both diamond turning and laser plotting. The purpose is to understand the typical tolerances and to simulate their influence to the aberrations in the optical system. © The Author. All rights reserved [DOI: 10.2971/jeos.2007.07028