Precision glass moulding lens design it should be considered that the lens has to be mountable in measurement systems. The shape of the preform or "blank" needs to be chosen according to the geometry of the finished optical element. Possible preforms are spherical (ball), near spherical (gob), plano-plano, plano-convex, plano-concave, biconvex and biconcave blanks. Ball and gob-blanks do not have to be premachined whereas other preforms require grinding and polishing. The following section describes basic traits of preform choice: “Used specifically for lenses with positive power: biconvex, plano-convex, and meniscus where the convex side is stronger than the concave side, this only works
Cylindrical lens Cylindrical lens A cylindrical lens is a lens which focuses light into a line instead of a point, as a spherical lens would. The curved face or faces of a cylindrical lens are sections of a cylinder, and focus the image passing through it into a line parallel to the intersection of the surface of the lens and a plane tangent to it. The lens compresses the image in the direction perpendicular to this line, and leaves it unaltered in the direction parallel to it (in the tangent plane). In a light sheet microscope, a cylindrical lens is placed in