Benno H. W. HENDRIKS, Marco A. J. VAN AS and Pascal J. H. BLOEMEN¹

Philips Research Laboratories, Prof. Holstlaan 4, 5656 AA Eindhoven, The Netherlands
¹Philips Lens Technology Center, Zwaanstraat 2a, 5600 JB Eindhoven, The Netherlands

(Received February 12, 2003; Accepted May 27, 2003)

High-NA objectives for optical recording have received a lot of attention due to the investigation of the Blu-ray Disc system. More recently to enable optical storage in portable devices, small building height optical drives have been studied requiring miniaturised high-NA objectives. Previously reported miniaturised objectives consist of two elements and are, therefore, less suited for mass production. In this paper the design and manufacturing of a miniaturised single element high-NA objective is reported. Furthermore, with the aid of non-periodic phase structures the tolerances of the objectives can be further expanded.

Key words: high numerical aperture, miniaturisation, optical recording, non-periodic phase structures