Flexible, fast, and non-contact measurement of cylindrical lenses

Numerous applications of optical systems are only possible through the use of cylindrical lenses. These include laser scanning, illumination systems for stepper optics, LiDAR and cine applications as well as light sheet microscopy. With the CylinderCheck module, consisting of hardware and software, TRIOPTICS is launching a solution for the quality control of single cylindrical lenses for the OptiCentric® 101 centration measurement system. It is flexible and versatile in its use and allows the measurement of

1. the centration and parallelism of the cylinder axis and the mechanical datum,
2. the clocking error of the cylinder axis to a mechanical datum or with respect to the cylinder axis on the second side of the element and
3. the wedge angle between the cylinder axis and the element’s second cylindrical or flat surface.

The associated software guides the operator through the individual steps of the measurement. This makes the measurement quick and reliable.

In addition, the CylinderCheck software on an OptiCentric® 101 with rotary air bearing is used to check cylindrical lenses in a lens system. Thus, the centering of the cylindrical axes in x- and y-direction are examined. In one measuring process, the system determines the positions of the centers of curvature of all lens surfaces in the objective lens in the two axial directions of the cylindrical lens. The MultiLens® software algorithm uses this information to determine the position of the optical axis of each element, including the cylindrical lens. The resulting optical axis of the entire system is also calculated.