The path to volume production for CPV optics

A crucial prerequisite for a commercial success of large-scale CPV is the capability for mass production of the manufacturing processes. For the optical components (primary and secondary lenses) there do exist various production concepts with different potential for cost efficient mass production. The most promising concept is (compression) injection molding, a process technology for optical components already proven in mature industries like Automotive or Semiconductor. While the capability of the injection molding process for a real mass production is already well established, it needs to be proven that also the high quality requirements in CPV can be met. Injection molded PMMA Fresnel lenses can be manufactured with peak-to-valley deviations less than 10 µm, showing nearly no inner stress and very low and homogeneous edge radii in the order of 5 µm.