Patent attributes
A substantially transparent optical component, which comprises polymer, is molded. The optical component has substantially matching grating imprints on respective portions of its surface, which imprints have a substantially zero relative orientation angle. Substantially transparent molten polymer is forced between two surfaces of a molding component. The molten polymer is forced into contact with surface modulations which form two substantially matching gratings. An alignment portion is located so that light which has interacted with both gratings is observable when the substantially transparent polymer is between the surfaces. While the polymer is still liquid, the molding component is reconfigured from a current configuration to a new configuration in which the fringe spacing of a fringe pattern formed by the two gratings is substantially maximal, thus aligning the gratings to have a substantially zero relative orientation angle. The new configuration is maintained while the polymer sets.
