Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G02—OPTICS
  • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
  • G02B1/00—Optical elements characterised by the material of which they are made; Optical coatings for optical elements
  • G02B1/10—Optical coatings produced by application to, or surface treatment of, optical elements
  • G02B1/14—Protective coatings, e.g. hard coatings
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B29—WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE IN GENERAL
  • B29D—PRODUCING PARTICULAR ARTICLES FROM PLASTICS OR FROM SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE
  • B29D11/00—Producing optical elements, e.g. lenses or prisms
  • B29D11/00009—Production of simple or compound lenses
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B29—WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE IN GENERAL
  • B29D—PRODUCING PARTICULAR ARTICLES FROM PLASTICS OR FROM SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE
  • B29D11/00—Producing optical elements, e.g. lenses or prisms
  • B29D11/00009—Production of simple or compound lenses
  • B29D11/00317—Production of lenses with markings or patterns
  • B29D11/00326—Production of lenses with markings or patterns having particular surface properties, e.g. a micropattern
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B29—WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE IN GENERAL
  • B29D—PRODUCING PARTICULAR ARTICLES FROM PLASTICS OR FROM SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE
  • B29D11/00—Producing optical elements, e.g. lenses or prisms
  • B29D11/0073—Optical laminates
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B29—WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE IN GENERAL
  • B29D—PRODUCING PARTICULAR ARTICLES FROM PLASTICS OR FROM SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE
  • B29D11/00—Producing optical elements, e.g. lenses or prisms
  • B29D11/00865—Applying coatings; tinting; colouring
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G02—OPTICS
  • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
  • G02B1/00—Optical elements characterised by the material of which they are made; Optical coatings for optical elements
  • G02B1/10—Optical coatings produced by application to, or surface treatment of, optical elements
  • G02B1/11—Anti-reflection coatings
  • G02B1/113—Anti-reflection coatings using inorganic layer materials only
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G02—OPTICS
  • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
  • G02B3/00—Simple or compound lenses
  • G02B3/0006—Arrays
  • G02B3/0012—Arrays characterised by the manufacturing method
  • G02B3/0031—Replication or moulding, e.g. hot embossing, UV-casting, injection moulding

Definitions

• under cured or partially cured coating may be utilized on a film to increase formability during injection molding.
• a process may be utilized to expose patterned lenses after injection molding to various light sources, such as UV, LED, or visible light, to complete coating/curing and thereby improve abrasion resistance.
• various light sources such as UV, LED, or visible light
• a coated laminate may be utilized in addition to a single layer film.
• the film thickness may range from about 0.1 mm to 2.0mm and the coating thickness may range from about 0.5 microns to 20 microns.
• under-cured coatings may be utilized on the film to improve adhesion of the hardcoating applied after molding the lens.
• nylon lens material and film may be utilized.
• abrasion resistance coatings may be applied to the finished lens.
• a coated film may be utilized without an additional hardcoating after injection molding.
• a single layer hardcoating may be utilized.
• a primer layer and a hardcoating layer may be utilized.
• the coating may be applied on the film using spin coatings.
• the coating may be applied on the film in the shape of a flat wafer.
• the coating may be applied on the film in the shape of a formed wafer.
• Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a patterned lens including microlenses in accordance with an example embodiment.
• Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a patterned lens including microlenses with a hardcoating applied in accordance with an example embodiment.
• Fig. 6 is a table illustrating defocus testing results in accordance with an example embodiment.
• Fig. 1 illustrates a cross section of an example embodiment of a patterned ophthalmic lens 100, e.g., a lens element 110 having a plurality of microlenses 120 on the surface thereof.
• the patterned ophthalmic lens 100 may comprise a plurality of microlenses 120 on the surface of the ophthalmic lens 110.
• Each of the plurality of microlenses 120 may comprise various shapes or configuration, including but not limited to spherical, toric, or aspherical.
• Each of the plurality of microlenses 120 may have a single focus point (e.g., cylindrical power) or may have a non-focusing point (e.g., for use in preventing progression of myopia or hyperopia).
• the use of a plurality of microlenses 120 on the surface of the ophthalmic lens 110 may provide a variable optical power configuration.
• the ophthalmic lens 110 surface may provide a first optical power and the plurality of microlenses 120 may provide a second optical power which is different from the first optical power.
• the plurality of microlenses 120 may provide multiple or a plurality of optical powers which are different from the first optical power of the ophthalmic lens 110 surface.
• the plurality of microlenses 120 may alter or change the correction provided by the prescription of the ophthalmic lens 110 through differences in curvature between the ophthalmic lens 110 surface and the surfaces of the plurality of microlenses 120.
• each microlens 120 of the plurality of the microlenses 120 on the surface of the ophthalmic lens 110 may have a diameter (D) in a range from about 0.1 mm to 2 mm, such as 0.5 mm to 1.5 mm.
• the height, H, of each microlens 120 of the plurality of the microlenses 120 may be in a range of from about 0.01 to 0.8 mm.
• the height, H, of each microlens 120 of the plurality of the microlenses 120 may be in a range of from about 0.0008 to 0.8 mm.
• the height, H, of the each microlens 120 may be determined based on the desired second optical power expected from that very microlens 120.
• each microlens 120 may comprise a convex spherical shape toward the viewer side having a larger curvature than the viewer side surface of the ophthalmic lens 110.
• the distance in between two microlenses 120, as shown in Fig. 1 may be the viewer side surface of the of the ophthalmic lens 110. It can be seen from Fig. 1 that there may be a sharp drop of curvatures between the convex spherical shape surface of the microlens 120 and the viewer side surface of the of the ophthalmic lens 110.
• a hardcoating 130 may be applied on the surface of the lens 110.
• coating the surface of an ophthalmic lens 110 having microlenses 120 with an abrasion-resistant coating 130 may reduce the “sharpness” of the transition from the curvature of the m icrolens 120 to the curvature of the base lens 110.
• Increased deviation of the curvature of the transition from the curvature of the microlens 120 may diminish the control of the desired defocus, which may lead to a degradation in the performance of the patterned lens 100.
• both the optical power of the microlenses 120 and the effect provided by the microlenses 120 may be reduced, thereby leading to reduced effectiveness for the treatment of rapid myopic development.
• the surface of the base lens 110 may be coated with a hardcoating 130 which may have a coating thickness, for example but not limited to “d”.
• the height of the thickness may be measured as the height between the viewer side surface of the ophthalm ic lens 110 and the outer surface of the hardcoating 130 on top of the viewer side surface of the ophthalmic lens 110.
• the height of the feature e.g., the microlens 120
• the height of the feature may be similar in magnitude to the thickness of a typical hardcoating 130. This may have the effect of “washing out” the feature and negating the functional purpose of the patterned lens 100. As a result, it may be necessary to minimize the thickness of the hardcoating 130 to compensate for the degradation in the optical quality.
• a film or sheet 140 may be formed on the front of the base lens 110 during the injection molding process.
• the sheet or film 140 may have a thickness “T”.
• Various types of films or sheets 140 may be utilized in different embodiments.
• the film or sheet 140 may be composed of polycarbonate (e.g., a polycarbonate film).
• the film or sheet 140 may have a formable hard abrasion-resistant and/or scratch-resistant coating 130 applied to its surface prior to use in the lens 110.
• a thickness of the hard abrasion-resistant and/or scratch-resistant coating 130 applied on the film or sheet 140 may have a height d', as can be seen in Fig. 3. The height d' of the thickness may be measured as the height between the viewer side surface of the film or sheet 140 and the outer surface of the hard abrasion-resistant and/or scratch-resistant coating 130 on top of the viewer side surface of the film or sheet 140.
• the hard abrasion-resistant and/or scratch- resistant coatings 130 may be from a family of different materials including but not limited to siloxanes, acrylates, and urethanes.
• the hard abrasion- resistant and/or scratch-resistant coatings 130 may be prepared from curable or cross linkable compositions and the curing may be achieved by thermal or UV curing.
• the front or the viewer side surface of the film or sheet 140 may be away from the injection molding process, and thus may have been precoated with a hardcoating 130 of thickness d’.
• a hardcoating 130 may be referred to as the Base Layer (BL) 130.
• the final hardcoating 130’ with a thickness d may be applied on the plurality of the microlenses 120 by using, for example, dip coating.
• dip coating Such a configuration is shown schematically in Figure 4.
• the hardcoating 130’ thickness d on the top outermost surface may be thin enough so as to minimize any degradation of the transition between the feature, e.g., a microlens 120, and the base lens curve shape.
• the BL 130 of the first hardcoating 130 may provide additional abrasion resistance by providing an increased surface hardness relative to the underlying lens material 110.
• the materials used for the various layers in one embodiment may have indices that may be sufficiently similar to minimize any associated error.
• the final hardcoating 130’ over the microlenses 120 may have a refractive index 1 .5
• the base layer BL hardcoating 130 may also have a refractive index of 1.5
• the sheet or film 140 and lens 110 material, e.g., polycarbonate may have a refractive index of 1.59.
• the largest refractive index step may be 0.09 between the polycarbonate film and the final hardcoating 130’ or the BL hardcoating 130 layer.
• One benefit of the base layer BL 130 may be to increase the abrasion resistance by providing a superior base layer.
• One benefit of this is shown in Fig. 5.
• Abrasion resistance can be measured in various ways, including Bayer and steel wool abrasion testing.
• the data in Fig. 5 is for illustrative purposes and thus should not be construed as limiting in scope.
• the hardcoat alone may require a thickness of near 2.75 microns. Such a thickness may lead to undesirable degradation to the optical properties of the lens as discussed above.
• the hardcoat thickness may be reduced to 1.3 microns for the target abrasion resistant value of 5 and still achieve the desired abrasion resistance and also the desired optical performance.
• U.S. Patent No. 7,500,749 discloses a process to produce an optical article with injection molding process and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
• Example embodiments are described in more detail below. However, it should be appreciated that any methods, steps, systems, devices, and/or values shown and/or described below are merely for exemplary, illustrative purposes. Thus, the scope of the present invention should not be construed as limited by the following example embodiments.
• a thermal formable coating which may be dual thermally cured in combination with UV cured coating. After the coating solution has been applied onto the polycarbonate film, the coated film may be thermally cured, resulting in a transparent coating while retaining good adhesion to polycarbonate and passing initial crosshatch adhesion tape testing. Such a thermally cured only coating may be flexible and thermoformable.
• Non-limiting examples of commercially available coated polycarbonate film include, e.g., Lexan HP92S and Lexan HP92T from Sabie, 5X36 Indoor AR PC and Poly 12323 from TechPlast, Makrolon HF312 and Makrolon HF278 from Covestro; and Planlite PC-710A, and PC-SB50 from Teijin.
• a first example embodiment may comprise injection molding of a polycarbonate lens with precoated HF312 film and the addition of conventional hard coating with a Bayer ratio of about 1.7. Such a first example embodiment may utilize 15 mil precoated polycarbonate film having a coating thickness of 14 microns. The polycarbonate film may be UV cured without completion of a thermal cure.
• the HF312 film may be laminated with another 12 mil polycarbonate film to form a photochromic laminate.
• the photochromic laminate may then be cut into a flat, round-shaped wafter and produced into a 6-base photochromic lens with an in-mold injection process so that the coating is on the convex side of the lens.
• the coating may not be hazy and visual inspection may not show any signs of coating crack.
• the lens may then be exposed to UV light, such as with a mercy D-bulb lamp to a UVA dosage of 2000mJ/cm2 to complete the curing of the coating.
• a scratch resistance coating including a 0.2 micron primer layer and a 1.8 micron hardcoat layer may be applied on the above lens with the dip coating process, followed by a curing of six hours at 235 degrees Fahrenheit. Abrasion resistant testing may be performed on the lens resulting in a Bayer ratio of about 1 .7.
• a second example embodiment may comprise injection molding of a polycarbonate lens with an uncoated polycarbonate film and the addition of a conventional lens hard coating with a Bayer ratio of about 0.9.
• An uncoated, flat, roundshaped 6-base photochromic polycarbonate wafer may be injection molded into the lens.
• the lens itself may be coated with Crystalcoat 1165 and Crystalcoat 1154, with abrasion resistant testing resulting in a Bayer ratio of about 0.9.
• the first example embodiment may show an improvement of about 89% when compared to standard methods of lens production contained in the second example embodiment.
• a third example embodiment may comprise injection molding of a polycarbonate lens with precoated HF278 film and the conventional hard coating of the polycarbonate lens with a Bayer ratio of about 1.9.
• a 15 mil precoated polycarbonate film may be utilized, similar to the first example embodiment.
• a 6-base polycarbonate lens may be produced using the same or a similar process to what was described in the second example embodiment, except that the 15 mil precoated polycarbonate film may be precoated HF278 film.
• Abrasion resistant testing may result in a Bayer ratio of about 1.9, showing an improvement of about 100% when compared to standard methods of lens production contained in the second example embodiment.
• a fourth example embodiment may comprise injection molding of a precoated polycarbonate lens.
• samples may be prepared using an additional UV curable coating applied to polycarbonate photochromic laminate samples.
• the UV curable coating may be applied in house (e.g., not precoated) to allow greater control over the degree of curing, which influences the coating hardness and modulus in molding.
• the coated film may employ a coating resin of 1 micro thickness which may be partially cured with UV light followed by a thermal cure cycle (e.g., greater than 100 degrees Celsius) or additional UV curving.
• the applied hard coating may have a thickness of about 2 microns with a primer layer of about 0.2 microns.
• the hard coating may be applied to the molded lens (with or without laminate).
• Bayer testing of such an embodiment with hard coat only may result in a Bayer ratio of about 3.1.
• Bayer testing of such an embodiment with wafer coating only on laminate may result in a Bayer ratio of about 1 .3.
• Bayer testing of such an embodiment with hard coating and wafer coating on laminate may result in a Bayer ratio of about 5.6.
• cross hatch adhesion may pass tests.
• the wafer coating itself may be seen to provide some base abrasion resistance.
• combination with a hard coating may significantly increase its Bayer abrasion value, including just using a wafer coating alone or using hard coating alone.
• efficacy of the above example embodiments has clearly demonstrated efficacy for improving abrasion resistance.
• a fifth example embodiment may demonstrate feature replication.
• a series of lenses may be prepared with and without coated film to compare the lens geometry from a patterned mold.
• the coated film may match that of the above example embodiment.
• the mold pattern may be similar to that which is shown and/or described in U.S. Patent No. 11 ,397,335, which discloses an array of independent island shape areas of curvature greater than the base curve of the mold insert (i.e., “lenslets”) and which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
• the lenslets may have a typical nominal diameter of about 0.98 mm with a height of about 0.75 microns.
• the coated film may employ a coating resin of about 1 micron thickness which may be partially cured with UV light followed by a thermal cure cycle (e.g., greater than 100 degrees Celsius) or additional UV curing.
• the geometry of the molded lens may be measured using an interferometer, such as a Zygo Nuview.
• the diameter and height may be statistically equivalent based on the p-Value, but the curve powers expressed in diopters may be statistically different. However, any deviations between the results are small and may be easily compensated with a modification to the insert design, if necessary.
• the lenses after molding may remain clear and show no evidence of cracking or damage to the coating on the laminate surface after incorporation into a lens.
• the combined data such as shown in Fig. 6 clearly shows the ability for the use of a precoated laminate to improve abrasion resistance of a lens while still allowing replication of patterned surfaces in the final lens geometry.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
• Optics & Photonics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Ophthalmology & Optometry (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Inorganic Chemistry (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Surface Treatment Of Optical Elements (AREA)
• Eyeglasses (AREA)
• Laminated Bodies (AREA)

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• 2022
  • 2022-11-23 AU AU2022398493A patent/AU2022398493A1/en active Pending
  • 2022-11-23 KR KR1020247020443A patent/KR20240108503A/ko active Pending
  • 2022-11-23 CN CN202280082254.5A patent/CN118382823A/zh active Pending
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