Study of process parameters on optical qualities for injection-molded plastic lenses

Numerical simulations for mold-flow analysis and experimental measurements of injection-molded plastic lenses have been conducted for investigation of optical qualities, residual birefringence, and form accuracy resulting from various pertinent process conditions. First, residual birefringence distributions on the lens have been predicted and verified experimentally Furthermore, full-scale factorial design of experiments was conducted to comprehend the influences of qualities, such as shear stresses, form accuracy, and volumetric deviation, on the measured primary or Seidel aberrations. In conclusion, residual birefringence induced by stresses represented by photoelasticity measurements agrees well with the numerical predictions and the experimental results indicate that the residual birefringence is mainly generated during the mold-filling stage. In addition, spherical aberration of the injection-molded plastic lenses is more sensitive to the pertinent qualities as compared to coma and astigmatism. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.