Machine learning for aspherical lens form accuracy improvement in precision molding of infrared chalcogenide glass

Precision glass molding (PGM) is an effective approach to manufacturing infrared chalcogenide glass (ChG) aspherical lens with complex shapes. However, infrared ChG aspherical lens often experiences form error in the designed profile and the final profile obtained by PGM. To reduce the form error of infrared ChG aspherical lens in the PGM process, a form error compensation model based on the random forest (RF) algorithm is proposed. The infrared ChG aspherical lens profile was first machined on an electroless nickel-phosphorus (Ni–P) plating to serve as the mold for PGM. After molding, the profile data of the lens was extracted, and a compensation model based on RF was constructed to optimize the model parameters using the evaluation parameters such as root mean square error (RMSE), coefficient of determination (R2), and out-of-bag (OOB). Finally, the generated compensated profile based on the compensation model was used for the compensation machining of the mold. Through this compensation approach, we have demonstrated a substantial 63.5 % reduction in the form error of the fabricated infrared ChG aspherical lens, decreasing the Peak-to-Valley (PV) value from 1.04 μm to 0.38 μm.