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US 2006/0132918 A1Published application
Retroreflector with controlled divergence made by the method of localized substrate stress
AssigneeAvery Dennison Corporation
InventorsDennis Couzin, Steven Chapman, Kejian Huang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cube corner array with minute modifications of the dihedral angles of some of the cube corners is produced by introducing a stress or change via the opposite side of the substrate. The array having aberrated elements can be replicated for use in the manufacture of a tool, and the tool can be used in the manufacture of retroreflective products of broader divergence.
Claims20
An article comprising:
- a substrate having opposed first and second surfaces, the first surface having an array of micro-optical elements formed thereon;
- wherein one or more of the micro-optical elements are aberrated by controlled working at one or more localized regions on the second surface of the substrate, the controlled working being of a magnitude sufficient to aberrate one or more of the micro-optical elements opposite the site of the working.
An article comprising:
- a substrate having opposed first and second surfaces, said first surface having an array of cube corner elements formed thereon;
- wherein one or more of the cube corner elements have one or more dihedral angles that are aberrated by controlled working at one or more localized regions on the second surface of the substrate, the controlled working being of a magnitude sufficient opposite the site of working to create an array of cube corner elements having divergence over a desired range.
A method of producing an array of micro-optical elements, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing a substrate having an array of micro-optical elements formed thereon, and
- controlled working at one or more localized regions on a surface of the substrate;
- wherein said controlled working step is performed so as to aberrate one or more of the micro-optical elements to thereby produce a worked array of micro-optical elements having divergence over a broader range than the divergence of the array before said controlled working step.
An article comprising a substrate for making an array of retroreflective elements;
- the substrate having an array of micro-optical elements formed thereon;
- the array of micro-optical elements including at least one aberrated micro-optical element and a plurality of non-aberrated micro-optical elements;
- the substrate having a surface having localized regions which have been controlled worked to form the aberrated micro-optical elements;
- the array of micro-optical elements having divergence over a broader range than the divergence of the array if the localized regions had not been controlled worked.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.