Polymer Optics Days - Fraunhofer IPT

International Conference / June 19, 2024 - June 20, 2024

Aachen Polymer Optics Days 2024

The production of optical components is subject to high accuracy requirements. In-depth knowledge of materials and processes is necessary to make production precise and efficient. This concerns not only the actual molding process, but also the upstream and downstream steps in the entire process chain. The Aachen Polymer Optics Days conference addresses all relevant issues in optical plastics manufacturing - from material selection and replication to metrological characterization and the optical system. This year's conference will focus on the following topics:

New and conventional materials
Tool and mold making
Replication technologies
Metrology/Quality/Digitization
Optical Systems

The Aachen Polymer Optics Days 2024 offer an excellent networking platform for participants from industry and research interested in a lively exchange on the manufacturing possibilities and application potentials of optical plastic products. Current developments and trends will be highlighted from a manufacturing and application perspective in expert presentations. Take advantage of the conference as a renowned industry meeting place for exchanging ideas with expert colleagues! In addition to the lecture program, there will be a company exhibition accompanying the conference as well as a test bench tour at the participating research institutes.

Besides the technical presentations participants can take part in a tour through the laboratory and test bench facilities at IKV, Fraunhofer IPT and ILT. Moreover, the conference provides for broad networking possibilities through coffee breaks in the industry exhibition area and a dinner event on the first conference day.

A scientific committee of the two Fraunhofer Institutes for Production Technology IPT and for Laser Technology ILT as well as the Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) in Industry and Craft at RWTH Aachen University has been organizing the event regularly for a decade now. In that time, the conference has established itself as an important international forum for leading experts in the field of polymer optics manufacturing.

Event details

Program

Wednesday June, 19, 2024

from 7:45 a.m.	Registration
8:45 a.m.	Welcome Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Hopmann, Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) in Industry and Craft at RWTH Aachen University, Germany
9 a.m.	Key Note: Material and manufacturing challenges for polymer optics in augmented and virtual reality settings Kurt Jenkins, Meta Platforms Inc., USA
Session I: Materials for optics manufacturing
9:30 a.m.	Optical material selection: yesterday – today – tomorrow Klaus Vamberszky, Zumtobel Lighting GmbH, Austria
10:00 a.m.	Maximum transmission, minimum emission – material solutions for sustainable lighting Simon Bölle, Covestro Deutschland AG, Germany
10:30 a.m.	Coffee break
11:00 a.m.	New almost zero birefringent thermoplastic resin Yutaka Tada, Asahi Kasei Corporation, Japan
11:30 a.m.	Microoptics on polymer substrates – a new trend emerging? Dr. Stephan Pröller, Panacol-Elosol GmbH, Germany
12 a.m.	Lunch
Session II: Mold and tool making for optical components
13 p.m.	Machining technology for cutting-edge molds in polymer optic industry Dr. Shinichi Inoue , Makino GmbH, Germany
13:30 p.m.	Metaoptics; from lenses to optical module solutions Niklas Hansson, NIL Technology (NILT), Denmark
14:00 p.m.	Function follows form - new horizons for nano-engraving on free-form surfaces Dr. Veronica Savu, Morphotonix S.à.r.l., Switzerland
Institute tours
14:45 p.m.	Shuttle to the Fraunhofer IPT, Fraunhofer ILT and Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) at RWTH Aachen University
17:30 p.m.	Champagne reception and hall tour at Innolite GmbH, Aachen
19:00 p.m.	Dinner at Halle 60, Metzgerstraße 60, 52070 Aachen *please note: From Innolite GmbH to the dinner location it is 5 minutes to walk, no shuttle is needed

Thursday, June 20, 2024

Session III: Replication of optical components
8:30 a.m.	Process chain assessment through FMEAs Rolf-Uwe Müller, ARBURG GmbH + Co KG, Germany
9:00 a.m.	Reflowable micro lens array diffuser for super-wide-angle light distribution Hirotaka Tsujii, NALUX CO., LTD, Japan
9:30 a.m.	The continuous manufacture of precision optical products 1 meter wide Robert Pricone, The Boeing Company, USA
10:00 a.m.	Functional integration of multilayer films in optical parts Dr. Julian Neises , polyscale innovations GmbH, Germany
10:30 a.m.	Coffee break
Session IV: Quality management of optical components
11:00 a.m.	Form measurement of aspheric and free form polymer lenses Dr. Andreas Beutler, Mahr GmbH, Germany
11:30 a.m.	Dual-sided metrology of molded aspheric lenses Jordan Hall, Opto-Alignment Technology Inc., USA
12:00 a.m.	Advanced metrology of molded optics – form, inner centration and geometrical features Dr. Marc Wendel, Ametek GmbH, Germany
12:30 a.m.	Multilayer lenses – validating and developing solutions using simulation Cristoph Hinse, SimpaTec GmbH, Germany
13:00 p.m.	Lunch
Session V: Optical Systems
14:00 p.m.	Optical components in laser projection systems for smart Glasses Dr. Hans Georg Schlager, Bosch Sensortec GmbH, Germany
14:30 p.m.	Modern intraocular lens technology Dr. Benjamin Schreiber, Carl-Zeiss-Meditec AG, Germany
15:00 p.m.	Coffee break
15:30 p.m.	Principles and Applications of Birefringence Measurement in Polymers Laurent Fabre,Photron Deutschland GmbH, Germany
16:00p.m.	Optical systems in concept product manufacturing: learnings from the speed factory environment Dr. Robert Fader, Sick AG, Germany

Registration

Costs

The participation fee for the conference Aachen Polymer
Optics Days 2024 amounts to a total of € 930. This includes
€ 800 for participation in the conference (free of tax under
§ 4 UStG) as well as € 130 (incl. 19 % VAT) for participation
in the evening event. Please note that the conference participation must be booked together with the evening event.

If you register by May 5, 2024 you will receive an early
booking discount of € 100. Participants of the Online Sessions
2021 will have their costs deducted from the fee. If you cancel
your registration before April 21, 2024 you will only be charged
an administrative fee of € 100. After this date you will be
charged the full participation fee. For non-participation you
can designate a representative person without any additional
costs. Please note that the form needs to be signed.

Contact

Helen Kolb

Fraunhofer Institute for Productionstechnology IPT
Steinbachstr. 17
52074 Aachen
Germany

Phone +49 241 8904-287
apod@ipt.fraunhofer.de

Location

Das Liebig
Liebigstraße 19
52070 Aachen

Date

June 19, 2024 - June 20, 2024

Download this event as iCal

Language

English

Referenten der Konferenz

Expand all Close all

Kurt Jenkins

Kurt Jenkins is an Optical Tooling and Fabrication Engineer at Meta Reality Labs whose career spans 25 years. With 60 patents issued for consumer applications, his expertise includes plastic materials, injection molding, fabrication tooling, and technology transfer.

Driven by his passion for making AR and VR accessible to the masses, he has traveled over 2 million miles in search of the best suppliers and cutting-edge technologies to develop innovative optical solutions. His entrepreneurial spirit and inventive nature have led him to seek out top-notch collaborators to help bring his vision to life.

As an Optical Tooling and Fabrication Engineer, he navigates the intricate landscape of technical and logistical constraints, all while pushing the boundaries of design, manufacturing, and material solutions. His work bridges the gap between research and high-volume products, ensuring that groundbreaking ideas become reality.

At Meta, Kurt developed specialized tooling and processes for Meta Quest and Quest Pro Pancake optics which reduced cycle times, and improved precision by working between novel suppliers, production, and research.

Before joining Meta Reality Labs, Kurt made significant contributions at Xerox developing numerous new plastic applications for office printers and copiers. His decade-long tenure at Microsoft was equally impactful. As a manufacturing research engineer, he focused on polymer optics, backlights, and new materials for Microsoft hardware, including the iconic Surface devices.

Kurt is a native of the Pacific Northwest and grew up on Vashon Island, He earned his degree in Plastics and Manufacturing Engineering from Western Washington University. When not next to an injection molding machine or in a lab you can find him outside skiing and playing golf, and recently surfing and mountain biking.

Laurent Fabre

Laurent Fabre has been an Optical Measurement Systems design engineer at Photonic Lattice, Inc. (Japan) since 2008. Initially devoted to software development, he quickly started to be involved in the design and release of new systems, in particular the highly successful WPA system, a reference in the field of 2-D imaging, high-range, high-accuracy birefringence evaluation. He played a key role in the development of numerous other systems at Photonic Lattice, Inc., spanning from polarization imaging cameras to various birefringence evaluation systems and scanning laser ellipsometers.

Assigned as head of development at Photonic Lattice, Inc., he now supervises the whole product lineup for future developments, while dealing with new missions, especially in product marketing toward international market.

Dr. Shinichi Inoue

Shinichi Inoue has been with Makino Milling Machine Co., Ltd. since 1992. He initially devoted himself primarily to research and development before becoming Sales Director of the Makino Group. He started as spindle design engineer before he could lead the development of a disruptive new machining center for Aerospace industry.
In 2016 he became the first non-family member to head the Japanese company, which was founded in 1937.
Since 2022 he is living in Europe. With his interest for European research and technology ecosystems Dr. Inoue is CTO within Makino Europe GmbH.
In 2024 he got PhD in mechanical engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Dr. Marc Wendel

Marc Wendel got a diploma in physics from the Johanes Gutenberg-University of Mainz/Germany, where he worked in the field of particle detectors at an electron accelerator. He then continued his academic career at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern/Germany in the engineering department, working on signal processing and a large variety of different metrology systems. After his PhD thesis about angle-resolved scattering sensors, the author started in 2015 at Ametek GmbH, business unit Taylor Hobson. He is operating globally as Business Development Manager in the field of optics metrology, tactile and non-contact.

Rolf-Uwe Müller

Current Position: Senior application manager optics & ICM

Apprenticeship as qualified mechanic
Studies of plastics engineering at the Aalen University
Thesis and specialisation on high vacuum vapour deposition and glow discharge treatment
12 Month practical semester at Hella New Zealand Ltd.
6 Month thesis at Blösch AG CH-Grenchen
1 year as process engineer at Hella New Zealand Ltd
9 years as production manager at Hella New Zealand Ltd.
Since 2001 with ARBURG GmbH + Co KG in various positions as consulting process engineer covering
optical discs, PET-preform technology, manufacturing of optics & specialist for injection compression moulding

Yutaka Tada

Yutaka Tada works as assistant manager of AZP development department of Asahi Kasei Corporation. He obtained a master degree in materials science and engineering from Kyushu University in 2012. He joined Asahi Kasei Corporation in 2012 and has been involved in a variety of developmental activities for an optical polymer including polymerization, processing technology, optical evaluation, mass production, and marketing.

Currently, he is dealing with challenges of merging marketing and development. He is working on the development of processing technology such as fine molding and adhesion process, and marketing with mock-ups for principal verification.

Robert Pricone

Robert Pricone owns thirty years of experience commercializing technology platforms to manufacture precision microstructures in polymer substrates continuously. He has twenty-nine patents issued covering the precision manufacturing technology known as microreplication.

The microreplication process replicates optically precise micro-structures in polymeric substrates continuously roll to roll that were previously too difficult, or cost prohibitive to commercialize by any other means.

B.Ch.E, Seaton Hall University

2004 – Present Manager Special Technology, The Boeing Company

2024 10x Technology, LLC was acquired by The Boeing Company

2002 – 2024 President/Founder 10x Technology, LLC

1999 – 2001 General Manager, Avery Dennison Technology & New Ventures Divisio

Dr. Georg Schlager

Current Position: Director Engineering Optical Systems

Hans Georg Schlager was born 1965 in Landau i.d. Pfalz and received his PhD from the University of Karlsruhe in 1996 in the field of experimental solid-state physics. After a short post-doctoral research stay at Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique in Saclay/Paris, he started his industrial career in semiconductor manufacturing and worked ten years in process development, production unit management and business partnership management for IBM, Philips Semiconductors and NXP. In 2007 he joined Robert Bosch GmbH where he held different positions in development and commercialisation of MEMS accelerometers, gyros and pressure sensors for vehicle dynamics control and other automotive applications. Following assignments as head of product management of a Bosch start-up for drive systems for light electric vehicles and head of marketing and business strategy for Bosch Two-Wheeler & Power Sports division for Europe he took over responsibility for development of optical systems at Bosch Sensortec GmbH in 2019 within the company’s new product area optics.

Simon Bölle

Simon Bölle, M.Sc., studied mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University from 2009 to 2016. From 2017 to 2021, he was a research assistant at the Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV) at RWTH Aachen University and headed the working group "Joining Technology/Simulation". Since 2022, he has been working as technical product manager of the "General Lighting" segment at Covestro Deutschland AG.

Dr. Andreas Beutler

Andreas Beutler studied physics at the Universities of Bremen and Hamburg, Germany. He wrote his doctoral thesis on surface physics at Lunds University / MAXlab, Sweden, working with synchrotron radiation. Since 1999 he develops measuring instruments and researches at Mahr GmbH, Göttingen, Germany. He is responsible for advanced technology developments and research projects. His emphasis is on profilometry, optical sensors and metrology for optics production.

Dr. Veronica Savu

Veronica Savu obtained her PhD in Physics from Yale University (U.S.) in 2007, after which she moved to beautiful Lausanne, where she started a postdoctoral position in micro/nanotechnology at EPFL (CH). In 2009 I was awarded a five year Swiss National Science Foundation individual grant promoting junior researchers across disciplines, in collaboration with University of Basel. In 2014, Veronica became the co-founder and CEO of Morphotonix – a start-up providing the lowest C-footprint brand authentication and protection for molded products. She trained in various entrepreneurship courses and qualified for business coaching via dedicated start-up programs of INNOSUISSE (CH). The technology is now in production with customers world-wide.

Hirotaka Tsujii

Current position: Chief engineer of micro lens array diffuser at NALUX CO., LTD, Japan

Niklas Hansson

Theodor Nielsen founded NIL Technology (or in short NILT) together with Brian Bilenberg in 2006, as a spin-out from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Theodor holds an engineering degree from DTU, and he has for about 20 years been a frequent speaker at conferences and workshops about nanoimprint lithography. For many years NILT was known for their work in creating masters for nanoimprint lithography. Theodor has lead the transition of NILT to become the leading metalens company being vertically integrated from design to manufacturing.

Jordan Hall

Jordan Hall earned his BSME and MSME from Georgia Tech, where he focused on system design and bioengineering. He holds multiple patents in the areas of metrology systems and lens design. Jordan started his career developing high-precision metrology systems for characterizing hydrogel contact lenses at CIBA Vision (now Alcon). Later, he transitioned to developing high-precision test and metrology systems for FLIR Systems (now Teledyne FLIR) with a focus on wafer-level optics and LWIR lens assemblies. Jordan joined Opto-Alignment in March of 2022. He is responsible for all aspects of engineering, including product R&D, system development, and manufacturing.

Melanie Rupp

Melanie Rupp received her degree in chemistry in 2005 completing her thesis in adhesive industry at Sika Automotive in Hamburg. The following ten years she has been working at Max-Planck-Institute (including MPI for Polymer Research) with strong focus on surface chemistry and photo switchable surfaces. In 2015 Melanie Rupp started working in R&D at Panacol and by now she is focusing on the field of “Optical Sensors Consumer” and developing new optical materials as Strategic Product Developer.

Dr. Robert Fader

Robert Fader works as Head of Manufacturing Technologies at SICK AG, a provider of industrial sensor solutions. He has a PhD in electrical engineering from the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, where he also studied Physics from 2004 to 2010. During his PhD phase, he worked as a as a research associate at Fraunhofer IISB and Philips Research in the field of nanoimprint lithography. After his academic career, he started 2015 as a process engineer first at Brose Fahrzeugteile and then from 2017 at SICK AG with the focus on assembly and interconnection technology.

Cristoph Hinse

Cristoph Hinse is co-founder and Managing Director of SimpaTec Simulation & Technology Consulting GmbH in Aachen, one of the leading service and software companies and a competent partner for the plastics processing industry. He gained his first experience in the field of process simulation and FEA at IKV Aachen while studying chemical engineering with a focus on plastics technology. During his subsequent work as a project manager, he was responsible for the coordination, organization and execution of simulation-supported engineering projects. As Managing Director of SimpaTec, Cristoph Hinse has been providing expert advice and support for the integrated virtual product development and optimization of components, processes and tools since 2004. True to the core philosophy "Break your limits", a challenge to each of us to overcome barriers, to think beyond boundaries in order to conquer new horizons, the SimpaTec team meets every complex issue with scientific expertise at locations in Aachen, Reutlingen, Weimar, Hamburg (Germany) as well as in Guebwiller (France), Bangkok (Thailand), Schlierbach (Austria) and Charlotte (USA) with competence, experience and the use of state-of-the-art software technologies.

Dr. Benjamin Schreiber

Dr. Benjamin Schreiber studied physics at the Technical University of Dresden and completed his doctorate in the field of life sciences at the University of Würzburg and the Vienna Biocenter Core Facilities with a focus on nanophotonics and biomedical imaging.

At Carl-Zeiss-Meditec AG, Mr. Schreiber has been involved in the research and development of intraocular implants since 2018. He is particularly interested in the physiology and biomechanics of the eye, novel implant concepts and their realization and testing.

Klaus Vamberszky

Studied process technology („Verfahrenstechnik“) on the Technical University Vienna, worked in Research, Product Development, Product Management and Marketing in the Lighting Industry. Hold and held several board and supervisory board positions both internally at Zumtobel Group as well as with external associations like DIAL or Lighting Europe.

Actual position: Senior Director R&D Services @ ZUMTOBEL Lighting GmbH Parallel to his professional career he is teaching at several universities and universities of Applied science, mainly in the fields of strategic management and innovation and technology management.

Aachen Polymer Optics Days

Aachen Polymer Optics Days

International Conference / June 19, 2024 - June 20, 2024

Aachen Polymer Optics Days 2024

Aachen Polymer Optics Days 2024

Event details

Program

Wednesday June, 19, 2024

Thursday, June 20, 2024

Registration

Costs

Contact

Helen Kolb

Location

Language

Referenten der Konferenz

Kurt Jenkins

Laurent Fabre

Dr. Shinichi Inoue

Dr. Marc Wendel

Rolf-Uwe Müller

Yutaka Tada

Robert Pricone

Dr. Georg Schlager

Simon Bölle

Dr. Andreas Beutler

Dr. Veronica Savu

Hirotaka Tsujii

Niklas Hansson

Jordan Hall

Melanie Rupp

Dr. Robert Fader

Cristoph Hinse

Dr. Benjamin Schreiber

Klaus Vamberszky

Privacy warning

Sponsors of the Aachen Polymer Optics Days 2024