Publications
A novel method for the on-center turning of tightly toleranced micro arrays
Sandia National Laboratories has developed a means of manufacturing high precision aspheric lenslet arrays turned on-center. An innovative chucking and indexing mechanism was designed and implemented which allows the part to be indexed in two orthogonal directions parallel to the spindle face. This system was designed to meet a need for center to center positioning of 2μm and form error of λ/10. The part utilizes scribed orthogonal sets of grooves that locate the part on the chuck. The averaging of the grooves increases the repeatability of the system. The part is moved an integral number of grooves across the chuck by means of a vacuum chuck on a tool post that is mated to the part and holds the part while the chuck repositions to receive the part. The current setup is designed to create as many as 169 lenslets distributed over a 3mm square area while holding a true position tolerance of 1μm for all lenslets.