What is a Ball lens?

A ball lens is a spherical lens, which has an extremely short focal length and high light-collecting ability compared to a normal convex lens. Due to its short focal length, it is used as a coupling element for various sensors and optical fibers for the purpose of condensing a wide range of light to one point and collimating (converging light in a parallel state). Generally, ball lenses with a diameter of about 0.5 mm to 10 mm are produced as products, and a very small focal length of about 0.3 mm to 7.3 mm is realized.

Application of Ball lens

Ball lenses are used as optical sensors such as barcode scanners and as light-collecting elements for endoscopes. Since these sensors are required to be smaller and capable of detecting a wide range of optical information, the short focal length is directly linked to the sensor's ability. Ball lenses are also used to couple light from a laser source to an optical fiber. By using a ball lens with an appropriate numerical aperture for the beam diameter and numerical aperture (NA) of the laser beam, the light diffused from the laser beam is aligned in a straight line and incident into the optical fiber.

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