At+t Corp.

At&t Bell Laboratories

Avi Y Feldblum

Wesley P Townsend

Casimir R Nijander

Jurgen Jahns

Keith O Mersereau

Frank Sauer

A diffractive and a refractive microlens component are combined into a doublet lens to obtain imaging properties that are improvements over those achievable using separate components. In one application, diffractive/refractive microlens arrays are arranged to provide a free-space optical permutation interconnect arrangement.

Free-space optical interconnection arrangement

During a reactive ion etching process (FIG. 5) for making lens elements (15, FIG. 4) in a silica substrate (12), the gas constituency in the reactive ion etch chamber is changed to adjust the curvature of lens elements formed in the silica substrate and to reduce the aberrations of such lens elements. For example, two gases, CHF.sub.3 and oxygen may be supplied to the reactive ion etch chamber and, during the reactive ion etch process, the proportion of oxygen is significantly reduced, which reduces the aberrations of the lens elements formed by the process.

Methods for making microlens arrays

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Highland Park, NJ, United States of America

Avi Y Feldblum