Asphera Incorporated

Asphera Incorporated is a precision optics company located in Santa Cruz, California. Asphera was developed by optical industry experts with a focus on aspherical lens applications and manufacturing.

Our Products

Precision Aspheres

At Asphera Incorporated we are dedicated to pioneering precision optics within the heart of innovation, strategically nestled in Santa Cruz, California with accessible proximity to Silicon Valley and San Francisco. As industry trailblazers, we channel our expertise in aspherical lens applications and manufacturing to fulfill our customers' aspirations.

Our mission is rooted in harnessing cutting-edge technology and unwavering dedication to exceptional customer service. By offering optics at competitive prices, we aim to provide not just optics, but solutions that empower our customers, enabling them to attain their envisioned objectives. At Asphera, we strive to shape the future of optics, enhancing lives and fostering progress, one lens at a time.

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  • Unparalleled Precision

    Every Asphera optic contains the distilled experience from many demanding customer and research projects. The most precise measurement technology, state-of-the-art technologies, and continuously evolving control software ensures that we can provide innovative solutions to over 300 customers worldwide.

  • Proven Loyalty

    We have a simple promise to our customers: provide the highest quality product, turn it around fast, and do it at the lowest possible price. We offer customized pricing that meets your needs - not ours. Our management team has over 100 years of experience in the optical industry, and we’ll work hard every day to earn and keep your business. Your loyalty is our achievement.

  • Transcendent Quality

    Our process guarantees the best quality product.  Our quality assurance packet includes: detailed inspection report with actual values measured, material certificates from the glass manufacturer, coating curves, zygo reports, and certificate of conformance.  

Asphera has a unique wide-range of capabilites providing single point diamond turned (IR Materials) , CNC polished (Diameters up to 300mm), and molded (Diameters as small as 0.8mm) custom aspheres per your specification. Proficient in all three methods of aspheric lens manufacturing, we can provide the best option for your custom specification.

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Our UV-IR components (windows, lens, prisms, waveplates...) are controlled under precision tolerances of specified purity, parallelism, X-ray orientation as well as size and surface quality. Coating options (AR, BBAR, Dichroic, Aluminum, Silver, Gold,...) are available as well.



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Asphera is keeping the tradition of plano optics and prisms from small runs of 3 pieces up to OEM quantities of 10,000 pieces per month. We offer a large selection of prisms (Penta, Right Angle, Corner Cube Retro-reflectors, Roof, Porro, beamsplitting cubes…)

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Optical Industry Experts With A Focus!

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Read What Our Customers Think Of Us

"Asphera works with us to identify difficulties in certain specs and suggests alternatives. Communication is quick.."


Physical Sciences Inc.

" Image quality is essential for cameras in the medical field . Thank you for a job well done."


Imagin Systems

“The PMMA and LiF windows both worked out quite well. We'll certainly reach out as we identify our needs.

Thanks again for the great product.”


Department of the Navy

Asphera Articles

By Vinh Tran 27 Oct, 2022
Find out why you should get Asphera windows for your home, with our selection of three different types of windows. We recommend lithium fluoride and sapphire for their heat-resistant properties, as well as alpha quartz because it is strong.
By Brian 13 Sep, 2022
In the field of optics, aspheric lenses are gaining in popularity. This is because they offer many advantages over traditional spherical lenses. In this article, we will discuss what aspheric lenses are and how they differ from spherical lenses. We will also explore the benefits of using aspheric lenses in optical systems. What Is An Aspheric Lens? Aspheric lenses are lenses with a non-spherical surface. This means that the lens is not curved in a perfect circle. Instead, it has an irregular shape. The advantage of this is that aspheric lenses can correct for spherical aberration. Spherical aberration is a type of distortion that occurs when light passes through a spherical lens. This distortion can cause images to appear blurred. By using an aspheric lens, this distortion can be corrected. Aspheric lenses allow optical engineers to correct aberrations using fewer components than spherical optics since the former provides greater aberration correction than multiple surfaces of the latter. Given this, many spherical lenses may be replaced with smaller amounts of aspheric ones to achieve comparable or superior optical outcomes while reducing system size, simplifying the manufacturing procedure, and producing imaging lenses that are less expensive and outperform traditional spherical component assemblies. Costs And Benefits Of Using Aspheric Lenses. Aspheric lenses are not without their drawbacks, however. Aspheric lenses are more difficult to produce using conventional fabrication processes such as grinding and polishing since aspheric lens components are more intricate than spherical ones. As a result, aspheric lenses had not been widely used until recently. Nowadays, aspheric lenses may be created by the glass molding technique: a preform or near-net-shape glass is fed into heated molds within a molding machine, pressed between two mold halves, and then cooled and released from the molds. Glass molding is an efficient way to create complex shape accurate optical components at high efficiency. The cost of each lens produced using this method is less than that of standard aspherical manufacturing techniques, making it an excellent choice for high volume production. The issue with glass molding is that the high temperatures required to soften the glass can easily damage the mold, which shortens its lifespan. Furthermore, since it takes time to heat and cool down the mold, this process is inefficient. Consequently, for a long time there has been a demand for optical glasses that have a low softening temperature so they can be molded more easily. Glass material for molding has additional standards, such as transparency, scratch resistance, temperature stability in optical properties, and refractive index. Although plastic lenses are mass-produced at a lower cost, glass is better in terms of hardness, refractive index, light permeability, and stability to environmental changes such as temperature and humidity. In addition, it is important to provide a wide variety of glass materials for molding convenience to meet customers' needs. Asphere Manufacturing Methods There are four main methods of manufacturing aspheres: precision glass molding, precision polishing, diamond turning, and molded polymer aspheres. Precision glass molding is a process where a piece of glass is heated and then formed into the desired shape. This method is typically used for small batch sizes or when intricate shapes are needed. Precision polishing is a method where the asphere is created by grinding and then polishing the surface to achieve the desired shape. This method is typically used for larger batch sizes. Diamond turning, or Single Point Diamond Turning (SPDT), is a process where a diamond-tipped tool is used to cut the asphere into the desired shape. This method is typically used for small batch sizes or when precision is critical. Molded polymer aspheres are created by injection molding a piece of polymer into the desired shape. This method is typically used for larger batch sizes. Visit Here for more information about Aspherical Lens manufacturing methods. If you are designing an optical system, consider using aspheric lenses. They can provide superior performance at a lower cost than traditional spherical lenses. Do you have any questions about aspheric lenses? Leave a comment below and we will try to answer them!

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