Design Techniques and Applications Fields for Digital Micro-optics

Level: Intermediate Length: 7 hours Format: In-Person Lecture Intended Audience: Scientists, engineers, technicians, or managers who wish to learn more about how to design, model and fabricate micro-optics, diffractive optics and hybrid optics, and how such optics can be integrated effectively in consumer products. Basic knowledge in optics is assumed. Attendees will benefit maximally by attending the companion SPIE short course SC454 “Fabrication Technologies for Micro- and Nano-Optics”. Description: This course provides an overview of the various design and fabrication techniques available to the optical engineer for micro / nano optics, diffractive optics and holographic optics. Emphasis is put on DFM (Design For Manufacturing) for wafer scale fabrication, Diamond Turning Machining (DTM) and holographic origination. The course shows how design techniques can be tailored to address specific fabrication techniques' requirements and production equipment constraints. The course also addresses various current application fields as in display, imaging, sensing and metrology. It is built around 4 sections: (1) design, (2) modeling, (3) fabrication/mass production and (4) application fields. 1) The course reviews various design techniques used in standard optical CAD tools such as Zemax and CodeV to design Diffractive Optical Elements (DOEs), Micro-Lens Arrays (MLAs), hybrid optics and refractive micro-optics, Holographic Optical Element (HOE), as well as numerical design techniques for Computer Generated Holograms (CGHs). 2) Modeling single micro optics or complex micro-optical systems including MLAs, DOEs, HOEs, CGHs, and other hybrid elements can be a difficult task when using classical ray tracing algorithms. We review techniques using physical optics propagation to model all diffraction effects, along with systematic or random fabrication errors, multi-order propagation and other effects which cannot be modeled accurately through ray tracing. 3) Following the design (1) and modeling tasks (2), the optical engineer needs to perform a DFM process so that the resulting design can be fabricated by the desired manufacturing partner/vendor over a specific equipment. We will review such DFM for wafer fab via optical lithography (tape-out process), single point diamond turning (SPDT), or holographic recording specification. The course also reviews fracturing techniques to produce GDSII layout files for specific lithographic fabrication techniques and manufacturing equipment. 4) This section reviews current application fields for which micro-optics are providing an especially good match, quasi impossible to implement through traditional optics, such as depth mapping sensing (structured illumination based sensor) and augmented reality display (waveguide grating combiner optics). Applications examples in high resolution incremental/absolute optical encoders are also reviewed. Design and modeling techniques will be described for such applications fields, and optical hardware sub-system implementations and micro-optic elements will be shown and demonstrated at the end of the course. Learning Outcomes: This course will enable you to: - review the various micro-optics / diffractive optics design techniques used today in popular optical design software such as Zemax and CodeV - decide which design software would be best suited for a particular micro-optics design task - evaluate the various constraints linked to either ray tracing or physical optics propagation techniques, and develop custom numerical propagation algorithms - model systematic and random fabrication errors, especially for lithographic fabrication - compare the various constraints linked to mask layout generation for lithographic fabrication (GDSII) - review the different GDSII fabrication layout file architectures, and how to adapt them to various lithographic fabrication techniques such as the ones described in SC454 - learn about current hot application fields in consumer products, targeted to Augmented and Mixed Reality headsets, and review a few specific consumer products architectures such as the Kinect 360 and the Kinect One 3D sensors as well as the Hololens V1 MR headset and the Magic Leap One MR Headset. Instructor(s): Bernard C. Kress has made over the past two decades significant scientific contributions as an engineer, researcher, associate professor, consultant, instructor, and author. He has been instrumental in developing numerous optical sub-systems for consumer electronics and industrial products, generating IP, teaching and transferring technological solutions to industry. Application sectors include laser materials processing, optical anti-counterfeiting, biotech sensors, optical telecom devices, optical data storage, optical computing, optical motion sensors, digital image projection, digital displays systems, computational imaging and display, depth map and gesture sensors, and head-up and head mounted displays (smart glasses, AR/MR and VR). Bernard is specifically involved in the field of micro-optics, wafer scale optics, holography and nanophotonics. Bernard has published numerous books and book chapters on micro-optics and has more than 35 patents granted worldwide. He is a short course instructor for the SPIE since a decade and has been involved in numerous SPIE conferences as technical committee member and conference co-chair and chair. He is an SPIE fellow since 2013 as has been recently elected to the board of Directors of SPIE. Bernard has joined Google [X] Labs. in 2011 as the Principal Optical Architect, and is since 2015 the Partner Optical Architect at Microsoft Corp, working on the Hololens project. Event: SPIE Photonics West 2018 Course Held: 31 January 2018