Zemax solutions enable rapid prototyping and yield optimization for in-house and external projects

The market is booming for optical technology. Manufacturers in industries like consumer electronics and optical sensor-based medical diagnostics are seeking new ways to gain competitive advantage. The faster they can reach the market with viable, high-quality products that meet the ever-expanding range of consumer expectations, the better their chance to survive and thrive.

Winning this race to the market means finding strategic ways to get insights from reliable data, apply the latest technologies, boost innovation, and minimize production cycles without sacrificing quality.

Vienna-based UpNano combines their additive manufacturing system NanoOne with virtual prototyping technologies from Zemax to help companies optimize polymer lens development, achieving high-resolution precision at an unprecedentedly tiny scale. High-powered lasers and data-driven system design enhancements yield rapid fabrication techniques at the nano, micro, meso, and macro range.

At the heart of these efficiency gains is UpNano's ability to incorporate 3D printing capabilities that match the current market demand for hyperminiaturization. The company's 3D printing technologies enable UpNano and its customers to quickly produce prototypes they can use for validating optical system designs, in lieu of spending the considerable extra time and money required to manufacture lens prototypes using traditional methods.

This iterative prototyping process using 3D printing saves companies time and money while improving design quality by tracking to engineers' design ideas at the speed of their creativity. Rather than waiting a few months to get a prototype, they can quickly 3D print a model, discover the impact of their latest changes, and go right back to generating the next series of improvements to their product designs.

UpNano helps its customers in exactly this space, furnishing them with technology and analysis that accelerate optical product development while also enabling decision guidance for developing simple polymer lenses versus more complex freeform aspherical varieties.

Zemax OpticStudio® gives UpNano the power and flexibility to rapidly design and build optical systems for the resale market, and enable its customers to do the same. "Aspherical lens production can be very expensive, but with polymer optics, production costs are the same for spherical and aspherical surfaces," said Peter Gruber, UpNano Co-founder and Head of Technology. "With OpticStudio, we can efficiently design both lens types in-house."

OpticStudio continues to play a central role in UpNano operations. Read the full story to learn more about how Zemax is helping UpNano drive the innovation and feasibility of manufacturing multifunctional diffractive lenses in place of the typical refractive stacks.

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To learn more about OpticStudio, the industry standard for optical design software, try it for free!

UpNano is a system provider for high-resolution 3D printing. In addition to the development, production, and manufacturing of printing systems and the corresponding operating software, UpNano offers printing materials and accessories optimized for these processes.

* Photo courtesy of UpNano.