Precision composite lens

Abstract

The invention is directed to a method for making composite optical lenses, which includes the steps of obtaining an optical lens “core”; placing a semi-solid-like polymerizable composition in contact with at least one of the front or back surface of the core; compressing or heating the resulting semi-solid/core sandwich between two mold halves, where the mold contacting the semi-solid polymerizable material has a desired surface geometry; and exposing the semi-solid/core sandwich to a source of polymerizing energy. The resulting composite lens has the desirable characteristics of the core but is also easily fabricated with both toroidal curves and multi-focal pockets as a result of the semi-solid molding process. Also included within the present invention is a composite optical lens comprising a core portion and at least one layer of a cured resin bonded to the core portion, the cured resin comprising an interpenetrating crosslinked polymer network of reactive plasticizer within an entangled dead polymer. In one embodiment, the reactive plasticizer polymer network is further crosslinked to the dead polymer. The composite lens exhibits dimensional stability and high-fidelity replication of an internal mold cavity. The final lens may be a multi-vision lens and further may incorporate astigmatic corrections.