Laser confocal microscope noise evaluation on injection compression moulded (ICM) transparent polymer Fresnel lenses

The evaluation of an adequate and robust measuring strategy, for roughness assessment of polymer Fresnel lenses is put under assessment. An ‘on-sample’ measurement noise, is evaluated using a laser confocal microscope (OLYMPUS © Lext). Secondly, the lowest-noise roughness measuring procedure, on an injection compression moulded (ICM) Fresnel lens, is defined. A set of two different objectives is considered, i.e. a standard series (SO), against a long working distance one (LWD); two different magnifications objectives, 50x and 100x and the use or not of a dark environment. The noise evaluation is performed by comparing ‘on-sample’ noise with the one calculated on an optical flat. Noise is investigated by means of established methods, i.e. subtraction and averaging methods. Afterwards, the lowest-noise analysis is structured following a 23 full factorial experimental planning, whose factors are measuring working distance, objective magnification and room lighting. The result confirms a strong difference of noise, using the considered objectives. The most interesting result is that the performance of SO 50x objective is better than LWD 100x.