Metal mold manufacturing method, metal mold, optical element, and optical element manufacturing method

Abstract

A material of a cemented carbide having tungsten carbide as a major ingredient is cut and polished into a shape, a silicon coating as a protecting layer is applied thereto by the plasma CVD method, and a chromium nitride coating with a thickness of 1 μm is applied thereto to form a preliminary shape metal mold. The shape of the formed preliminary shape metal mold or the shape of a sample formed with the preliminary shape metal mold is measured, and from the manufacture error thereof, the shape correction amount of a preliminary shape metal mold 30 for use as a drag is obtained. Based on the obtained shape correction amount, correction by etching is performed on a drag molding surface 301 of the drag preliminary shape metal mold 30 so that a predetermined precision is obtained, thereby completing the metal mold. An optical element or a part is manufactured by use of the metal mold.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.