Analysis and fabrication of minifeature lamp lens by excimer laser micromachining

A variety of shapes of lamp lenses at the feature millimeter scale have been extensively used in lamp design. To further improve the light efficiency and to reduce the overall dimension of lamps, the lamp lens at the micrometer scale is fabricated by excimer laser cross scanning on a polycarbonate sheet. To verify the proposed method, the influence of an optical system with various shapes and sizes of lamp lenses on the light efficiency is explored in advance by ASAP optical software. The lens with a miniature feature can produce a smaller divergence angle than that with a large-size lens feature. The experiment is carried out at varying laser operating parameters, mask shape, and dimensions. The simulation shows that the desired lamp lens profile can be effectively produced by excimer laser micromachining. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.