Optomechanical tolerancing and lens alignment using elastomeric lens mount to efficiently meet optical requirements

Lens positioning accuracy and manufacturing cost are two main concerns for optomechanical engineers looking for solutions to reduce costs while meeting stringent optical and environmental requirements. Minimizing optical component positioning errors generally translates into significant cost increases. To maximize the precision-to-cost ratio, there are significant advantages in having both an accurate optomechanical tolerance calculation method and an effective technique to mount and align lenses. This paper presents a tool that has been developed at INO to easily perform complex optomechanical statistical tolerancing using Monte Carlo simulation to reduce manufacturing and alignment costs. This tolerancing method provides a more realistic prediction of optical component errors compared to the classical worst case and root sum square calculations. In addition, precision alignment using elastomeric lens mounting is presented. Thermal stability and often overlooked factors for effective alignments are discussed. Results of tests performed on real optical assemblies are presented for tolerancing, thermal stability and alignment performance. The use of these methods can considerably reduce cost while efficiently ensuring compliance with requirements.