The present invention concerns an optical element that comprises a base body and an optically effective layer system of which at least one layer system surface contacts the base body.
The invention also comprises a related manufacturing process, the utilization of such a component or process, as well as an optical projection arrangement.
Introduction:
German patent reference DE-40 33 842 discloses a cuboid optical element composed of dichroitic layers referred to as a “dichroitic prism.”
In the present application the term X-cube is used.
The present invention starts with the problems that exist with known X-cubes, as described, for example, in DE-40 33 842, or that occur in its manufacture. The present invention which was developed in order to find a solution to the problems with such elements, can be applied to a number of other optical elements.
For this reason this description begins with the specific problems to be solved on X-cubes and based thereon explains the application of the invention in more general terms.
Description:
Based on
Embedded between the two prism pairs 2a and 2d on the one side, 2b and 2c on the other side there is an additional, optically effective layer system 7, that largely reflects light in the red range but largely transmits light in the green range and the blue range. In
On the X-cube there are three input channels for red, green and blue light from corresponding sources, for example, LCD controlled, and an output channel with the recombined input signals. On the reflector systems, between each of said prism pairs, the correspondingly colored light, and particularly S-polarized light with an incidence angle of less than 45 degrees is reflected. In addition the hypotenuse surfaces of the prisms 2 can be and usually are coated with an antireflection layer system.
Because the pixels of the red-blue-green input channels should converge as accurately as possible, the angle tolerances on prism 2 and in the assembled X-cube must be very narrow.
Large tolerances result in poor imaging quality because the pictures do not accurately converge: blurring or color fringes occur.
Location 9, shown with dashes in
From DE-40 33 842, for example, it is known that X-cubes can be manufactured from four prisms 2 according to
Disadvantages of the Known Processes and Known X-Cubes:
The handling effort required for manufacturing the X-cubes as described, for example, in DE-40 33 842, is very high: First, each of the three lateral sides of each individual prism 2 must be mounted or fixed by plastering, blocking or wringing as shown in
From
During the coating and the handling of the individual prisms 2, the 90 degree prism edges are exposed without protection, that is, especially those edges which according to the foregoing explanation must be very accurate. This inevitably leads to chipping unless laborious precautions to protect these edges are taken, which again increases the costs.
If, for example, anything goes wrong during the coating of the individual prisms 2, such an individual piece must be remounted, ground, and repolished, otherwise it will have to be discarded. Correction processes are at best very difficult to implement.
Cementing of the individual prisms 2 in the exact relative position is very difficult and laborious. Complicated processes such as described in DE-40 33 842 are required. Prisms are cemented individually which is time-consuming and therefore costly.
Independently of said disadvantages the known process results in a structure in location 9 as shown in
From this it is evident that the cemented joints 11 cause an interruption of the red light reflection layer system 7 (consisting of 7′ and 7″) as well as the blue light reflection layer system 5 (consisting of 5′ and 5″).
As the X-cube is manufactured by cementing the individual prisms 2 whose 90 degree edges have been exposed to external influences without protection, faults occur almost inevitably in location 9 due to chipping defects along the 90 degree edges of the individual prisms.
The purpose of the present invention is to propose an optical element, in particular an X-cube, which is not afflicted by the disadvantages explained on the basis of
It is also the objective of the present invention to propose a manufacturing process that is not afflicted by said disadvantages in production, in particular of said X-cubes. The manufacturing process to be found should by highly economical, afford greater accuracy, and require fewer process steps.
In an optical element of the type referred to at the beginning, this is achieved by deposition on the body, of a second layer system that adjoins the surface of the first layer system at an angle. In this way the first mentioned, optically effective layer system is areally continuous and the second layer system adjoins one of the surfaces of the first one without a gap. A structure as has been explained based on
Characteristic for the process according to the invention is that for solving the aforementioned task one surface each is created on at least two sub-bodies of the base body of the element, where said two surfaces are complementary to each other on at least two sub-bodies, that is, they fit together with close tolerances. Subsequently at least one of these complementary surfaces is coated with an optically effective layer system, in particular the red or blue reflection layer system, if the element to be produced is an X-cube.
Subsequently, said sub-bodies are joined, for example, by cementing along said complementary surfaces with their now embedded layer system. A composite sub-body is thus formed. On the composite sub-body one surface that is common to at least two sub-bodies is processed which is at an angle to the complementary, interconnected surfaces, so that the complementary surfaces along which the sub-bodies are connected intersect the common surface to be processed. Finally another optically effective layer system is deposited along this jointly processed surface.
The preferred design versions of the element or process according to the invention are specified in the dependent claims. The element according to the invention is preferably used as an X-cube, or the process according to the invention is preferably used for manufacturing such X-cubes.
An optical projection arrangement with at least one element designed as an X-cube according to this invention has significantly reduced optical interference, especially in the center area 9 shown in
The invention is subsequently explained by means of the following illustrations:
a to 4h are intermediate products resulting from the process according to the invention, where the structures according to
With respect to the production process of an X-cube according to the invention,
All existing angles are 90 degrees (± tolerances), which means that the sub-bodies 20 and the intermediate product 22 are easy to manufacture, because among others, the opposite sides can be machined at the same time such as by dual lapping or dual polishing.
In simultaneous double-sided machining high parallelisms of the mutually opposite surfaces can be achieved, for example, with deviations of ≦2 μm across a length of 150 mm. In addition a high planarity of each surface is achieved, for example, with planarity deviations of ≦1 μm across lengths of 150 mm.
Because all angles involved are 90 degrees (± tolerances), each of the parts 20a to 20d and 22 can be easily mounted and positioned. In dual lapping or dual polishing operations no elaborate fixture is required and the corresponding part can simply be inserted into a polishing insert. Mounting of the parts by plastering, blocking or wringing can preferably be eliminated.
All angles involved can be manufactured with high precision because they are all 90 degree angles and no angles of 45 degrees, for example, that are much more difficult to produce. The angle tolerances for the 90 degree central angle of the sub-bodies 20 are preferably no greater than ±20 angular seconds.
The measurement instrumentation for geometrically measuring the produced parts can be kept very small by using an interferometer, for example.
Particularly when plan parallel complementary surfaces to be cemented are used, cementing is very easy and cemented joints of accurately defined thickness can be produced.
The production of such parts is easy to scale, that is, by using plates of various sizes several workpieces 22 referred to as T-cubes can be produced in a single piece that is subsequently singularized.
Optical measuring on coated surfaces of cuboid bodies with plan parallel surfaces is much simpler than on triangular prisms.
The following step-by-step description based on
a shows a plate for blanks 20′.
Through dual lapping, mutually opposite surfaces are machined according to
Subsequently one of the surfaces ∇∇ of plate 20′ is coated with a layer system 5′ according to
If the manufacturing process described here involves the production of X-cubes, preferably and as shown in
It should be noted here that the plate 20′ corresponds to the dimension of one or several elements, preferably four, in direction y as well as direction x; a singularization in both dimensions will be performed later.
According to
Whether only the surface of one of the plates 20″ involved is coated or both, and correspondingly the cement film is located between the surface of one plate 20′ and the layer, or between two layers, depends on the intended application. Preferred in the production of X-cubes is the coating of one of the complementary surfaces involved, and cementing of this surface with the complementary surface of the uncoated plate 20″.
The term complementary surfaces is used because, as will be shown later for other applications, the bodies with surfaces of any curvature can be placed on top of each other with the embedded layer system, provided the surfaces involved are complementary with the required accuracy.
As shown in
As shown in
For forming the plate 26 the bars must be aligned in such a way that in the next processing step the second layer system which in the X-cube production is the red reflection system 7, is deposited exactly perpendicular on the surface to be processed. This is greatly simplified by the fact that all surfaces of the bar or bars 24 are perpendicular and practically plan parallel to each other and because they are extremely flat. For example, as indicated at 25, preferably several bars 24 can be wrought together in order to compensate any angular error resulting from the sawing process. As mentioned and as shown on the left, also individual bars 24 can be lapped or polished if the sawing process is sufficiently accurate. Lapping and polishing are given as examples of joint mechanical machining.
As shown with ∇∇∇ the opposite lateral surface of plate 26 or of the individual bar 24 can now be dual lapped or dual polished.
As shown in
In this way the first layer system 5 and the cementing film are full-surface coated with 7 after repolishing. Preferably a relatively cold coating process is used, preferably a plasma and/or ion assisted coating process, preferably a sufficiently cold PVD process, preferably sputtering, or PECVD process, but in particular a cold coating process with substrate temperatures not exceeding 150 degrees C., preferably not exceeding 80 degrees C.
The structure of the process according to
According to
The resulting T-cube strips 28 are singularized into the desired lengths 1. But before singularization for the production of the X-cube the T-cubes are preferably chamfered by sawing and by machining their surfaces along planes E, preferably again on two sides, as shown with E1, E2, and E3, E4 respectively. After cutting to size in direction 1, very accurate X-cubes 1′ according to the invention are obtained. The 45 degree angle tolerances do not exceed ±2 angular minutes, preferably no more than ±1 angular minute. If applicable the chamfered surfaces corresponding to planes E in
Looking back at
Through this process the intersection area normally exhibits only a slight indentation of the cement film 11′ as shown at 30 in
In
Finally
In particular in the X-cube production with 90 degree blanks the more accurate machinability of mutually opposed surfaces, the cementing of the blanks, the joint coating and surface finishing and, preferably, the singularization into individual optical elements as the last step affords a considerable reduction of the manufacturing costs. It also results in elements with significantly fewer optically effective fault locations when we take into consideration that in the proposed process the delicate, centrally located 90 degree edges are never exposed.
Dielectric layer systems with at least one dielectric layer are preferably used as optically effective layer systems, particularly in the production of X-cubes. Suitable coating processes are the aforementioned, sufficiently cold processes. Of course, elements can be manufactured that are effective in spectral ranges other than visible light, for example in the UV or IR range, and in addition to color splitting layer systems, also reflection layer systems, antireflection layer systems, or polarization layer system can be used or integrated. In particular X-cubes used in projection systems can be manufactured for which high-precision, low-cost optical elements are required.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2694/96 | Nov 1996 | CH | national |
This application is a divisional of application Ser. No. 08/756,140 filed Nov. 26, 1996 and now U.S. Pat. No. 6,493,159, which claims priority on Swiss application number 2694/96 filed Nov. 1, 1996.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2737076 | Rock, Jr. | Mar 1956 | A |
4966438 | Mouchart et al. | Oct 1990 | A |
5041303 | Wertheimer et al. | Aug 1991 | A |
5042912 | Sato et al. | Aug 1991 | A |
5062508 | Ackermann et al. | Nov 1991 | A |
5260830 | Nishida et al. | Nov 1993 | A |
5789040 | Martinu et al. | Aug 1998 | A |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
40 33 842 | Apr 1991 | DE |
0 359 461 | Mar 1990 | EP |
754 590 | Aug 1956 | GB |
57-22202 | Feb 1982 | JP |
57158804 | Sep 1982 | JP |
02-167502 | Jun 1990 | JP |
05-066303 | Mar 1993 | JP |
05-088019 | Apr 1993 | JP |
5341228 | Dec 1993 | JP |
6186418 | Jul 1994 | JP |
07-311303 | Nov 1995 | JP |
7325214 | Dec 1995 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20030030921 A1 | Feb 2003 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
Parent | 08756140 | Nov 1996 | US |
Child | 10262701 | US |