Semi-automated optics design and production chain for laser-based optics manufacturing

Optical systems increasingly demand compact, lightweight, and high-performance components that surpass standard catalog lenses. While aspheric and freeform optics enable superior imaging performance through aberration correction and system simplification, their custom production remains slow and expensive. The Fraunhofer OPTICS48 project addresses this bottleneck by establishing a laser-based optics manufacturing chain, capable of producing customized micro- and macro-optics within 48 hours. The approach replaces conventional grinding and polishing with laser-based shaping, laser polishing, and laser beam figuring, tightly coupled to digital design workflows and integrated data handling across all process steps. This paper presents and validates its capabilities through three representative use cases: a customizable achromatic doublet with integrated manufacturing time optimization, a freeform optic for logo projection, and two different microlens arrays. The results demonstrate that laser-based manufacturing can deliver high-quality optical components with complex geometries at short notice while maintaining optical performance suitable for demanding applications.