The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 25, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 09, 1998
Daniel H. Raguin, Spencerport, NY (US);
G. Michael Morris, Faiport, NY (US);
Peter M. Emmel, Pittsford, NY (US);
Corning Incorporated, Rochester, NY (US);
Abstract
Fabrication of arbitrary profile micro-optical structures (lenses, gratings, etc.) and, if desired, with optomechanical alignment marks simultaneously during fabrication is based upon the use of low-contrast photosensitive material that, when exposed to a spatially variable energy dosage of electromagnetic radiation, can be processed to achieve multi-level or continuous surface-relief microstructures. By varying the exposure dose spatially based upon predetermined contrast curves of the photosensitive material, arbitrary one-dimensional (1-D) or two-dimensional (2-D) surface contours, including spherical, aspherical, toroidal, hyperbolic, parabolic, and ellipsoidal, can be achieved with surface sags greater than 15 &mgr;m. Surface profiles with advanced phase correction terms (e.g., Zernike polynomials) can be added to increase the alignment tolerance and overall system performance of the fabricated structure can also be fabricated. The continuous-relief pattern can be used as is in the photosensitive material, transferred into the underlying substrate through an etch process, electroformed into a metal, or replicated into a polymer.