Replication of a glass microlens array using a vitreous carbon mold.

A low-cost fabrication method for a high-surface-quality glass microlens array (MLA) was proposed using a glass molding technique with a vitreous carbon (VC) mold. A VC mold with a high-surface-quality MLA cavity was fabricated, and the glass MLA with a root mean square surface roughness of 4.59 nm was replicated using the VC mold. To obtain the glass MLA with high replication quality, the effects of molding conditions were examined. The surface quality was not degraded during the proposed VC mold fabrication method and glass molding process. The focused beam spot of the glass molded MLA was analyzed; it showed a diffraction-limited characteristic of the glass molded MLA.