3D printing of glass aspheric lens by digital light processing

3D printing is capable of fabricating glass components with complex shapes that are challenging for traditional processing techniques. Here, we describe a paradigm of 3D printing of centimeter-sized glass aspheric lenses by Digital Light Processing (DLP). The printed lenses were post-processed using spin coating technique to reduce the layered structures. Our process involved the use of a glass slurry composed of UV-curable resins and silica nanoparticles, with the printed part undergoing thermal debinding and sintering to achieve transparency. The glass slurry exhibited significantly higher viscosities near the solid-liquid interface, which can result in a resin tray failure when applying a layer thickness below 50 μm in the DLP process. The printed lens exhibited a smooth surface with RMS < 15 nm, a surface profile deviation <170 μm and an imaging resolution of 45.3lp/mm.