Custom Optics: Lenses, Mirrors, Windows and Assemblies

When a catalogue part doesn’t fit your optical path, mount or wavelength, Wavelength Opto-Electronic designs and manufactures the component to your requirements. This covers single elements such as lenses, mirrors, windows and beam splitters, and complete lens assemblies that are aligned, secured and tested before they ship. You might be specifying a focusing lens for a fiber laser cutting head, a cylindrical element for line generation in a machine vision system, or a small molded lens for an endoscope. In each case you supply the optical requirements, and we take the part from raw material through polishing, coating and verification.

What we make

The custom range covers the main refractive and reflective element types used in laser and imaging systems:

• Spherical, aspheric and cylindrical lenses for focusing, collimation and line shaping
• Axicon lenses for ring and Bessel-like beam profiles in laser processing
• Beam splitters in glass
• Optical mirrors, including narrowband laser-line designs
• Optical windows, including IR windows
• Molded lenses, including molded aspheres, endoscope lenses and other plastic optics
• Micro lens arrays, including silicon versions, for beam homogenizing and shaping

Substrates can be glass, crystal, metal, plastic, silicon or copper. Metal and copper substrates suit reflective optics in high-power laser paths. Crystal and silicon cover infrared work. Plastic is used for molded designs where volume and weight matter. If you aren’t sure which material fits your wavelength range, power level or environment, raise it during quoting. Material selection is part of the design conversation.

From material to verified assembly

Elements are produced on precision machining and polishing equipment. This includes magnetorheological polishing, ion beam polishing and large polishing ring machines, along with diamond turning for metal and other turnable optics. Metrology runs alongside production, and parts are inspected through QA and QC before release.

Coatings are applied to suit the application. Options include anti-reflection (AR), high-reflection (HR), partial-reflection (PR) and BC coatings, among others. Molded plastic lenses can be supplied with single-layer or multilayer anti-reflection coatings.

For assemblies, the process follows a controlled sequence:

1. Cleaning. Mechanical parts and work surfaces are cleaned with compressed air and then a liquid method. Care is taken not to damage the coatings.
2. Handling and loading. Elements are handled with vacuum chucks or gloves. Lenses and spacers go into the housing in the order set by the optical design.
3. Laser alignment. Element positions are checked by observing beam propagation and reflections. Spacers are used to fine-tune separations.
4. Securing. Elements are fixed with threaded retaining rings or optical-grade adhesive, depending on the design.
5. Final inspection. A cleaning check is followed by optical performance validation such as MTF testing against your specification.

If you need hardware to evaluate before committing to production, the Singapore Optics Rapid Prototyping (ORP) department can deliver prototypes within 2 weeks, subject to material availability.

Why work through Wavelength Optics USA

Specifying a custom optic involves a lot of back-and-forth: tolerances, coating curves, mounting interfaces and test criteria. Working with the US team keeps that conversation in your time zone and your units of practice.

• Local support. You have a US point of contact for drawings, revisions and questions during the project, rather than waiting on overnight replies.
• Fast quoting. Send a drawing, a spec sheet or a description of the problem. We’ll scope the part and coordinate with the Singapore manufacturing team to return a quote.
• Technical consultation on selection. If you’re deciding between an aspheric singlet and a multi-element design, or between a dielectric and a metal mirror for a given laser, we can work through the tradeoffs with you before anything is cut.

This applies to laser systems, imaging systems, endoscopy and beam shaping, across laser processing, machine vision, semiconductor and medical equipment. Contact Wavelength Optics USA with your requirements to start a custom optics project.