Optical components refer to the main components of optical systems that use optical principles to carry out various activities such as observation, measurement, analysis and recording, information processing, image quality evaluation, energy transmission and conversion, and are an important part of the core components of optical instruments, image display products, and optical storage devices. According to the accuracy and use classification, it can be divided into traditional optical components and precision optical components. Traditional optical components are mainly used in traditional camera, telescope, microscope and other traditional optical products; Precision optical components are mainly used in smart phones, projectors, digital cameras, camcorders, photocopiers, optical instruments, medical equipment and various precision optical lenses.

With the development of science and technology and the improvement of manufacturing processes, smart phones, digital cameras and other products have gradually become important consumer products for residents, driving optical products to increase the precision requirements of optical components.

From the perspective of the global optical component application field, smart phones and digital cameras are the most important precision optical component applications. The demand for security monitoring, car cameras, and smart homes has also put forward higher requirements for camera clarity, which not only increases the demand for optical lens film for high-definition cameras, but also promotes the upgrade of traditional optical coating products to optical coating products with higher gross profit margins.

 

Industry development trend

① the changing trend of product structure

The development of the precision optical components industry is subject to changes in the downstream product demand. Optical components are mainly used in optoelectronic products such as projectors, digital cameras and precision optical instruments. In recent years, with the rapid popularity of smart phones, the digital camera industry as a whole has entered a period of decline, and its market share has been gradually replaced by high-definition camera phones. The wave of smart wearable devices led by Apple has posed a fatal threat to traditional optoelectronic products in Japan.

Overall, the rapid growth of demand for security, vehicle, and smartphone products has driven the structural adjustment of the optical components industry. With the adjustment of the downstream product structure of the photoelectric industry, the optical components industry in the middle reaches of the industrial chain is bound to change the direction of product development, adjust the product structure, and move closer to new industries such as smart phones, security systems, and car lenses.

②The changing trend of technology upgrading

Terminal optoelectronic products are developing in the direction of higher pixels, thinner and cheaper, which puts forward higher technical requirements for optical components. In order to adapt to such product trends, optical components have changed in terms of materials and technical processes.

(1) Optical aspherical lenses are available

Spherical lens imaging has aberration, easy to cause the sharpness and deformation of the shortcomings, aspherical lens can obtain better imaging quality, correct a variety of aberrations, improve the system identification ability. It can replace multiple spherical lens parts with one or several aspherical lens parts, simplifying the instrument structure and reducing the cost. Commonly used parabolic mirror, hyperboloid mirror and elliptic mirror.

(2) The wide use of optical plastics

The primary raw materials of optical components are mainly optical glass, and with the development of synthesis technology and the improvement of processing technology, optical plastics have developed rapidly. The traditional optical glass material is more expensive, the production and reprocessing technology is complex, and the yield is not high. Compared with optical glass, optical plastics have good plastic molding process characteristics, light weight, low cost and other advantages, and have been widely used in photography, aviation, military, medical, cultural and educational fields of civilian optical instruments and equipment.

From the perspective of optical lens applications, all kinds of lenses and lenses have plastic products, which can be directly formed by the molding process, without the traditional milling, fine grinding, polishing and other processes, especially suitable for aspherical optical components. Another feature of the use of optical plastics is that the lens can be directly formed with the frame structure, simplifying the assembly process, ensuring assembly quality and reducing production costs.

In recent years, solvents have been used to diffuse into optical plastics to change the refractive index of optical materials and control product characteristics from the raw material stage. In recent years, the domestic also began to pay attention to the application and development of optical plastics, its application range has been expanded from optical transparent parts to imaging optical systems, domestic manufacturers in the framing optical system in part or even all the use of optical plastics instead of optical glass. In the future, if the defects such as poor stability, refractive index changes with temperature, and poor wear resistance can be overcome, the application of optical plastics in the field of optical components will be more extensive.