1. Start with a thin sheet of glass.

2. We want to create a sheet of glass that appears to be riddled with parabolic dimples. The back surface is etched, material is removed, to create a surface that can be coated with a reflective metal. So it is actually the outside of the paraboloids that are machined, not the inside. The focal point of each paraboloid should lie on the plane coincident with the front surface of the glass sheet.

3. Before the reflective metal is applied a tiny fibreoptic ferrule is attached to the vertex of each paraboloid, not at the focus, but at the very bottom of each geometric well. The reflective metal is then applied to all the parabolic backfaces that remain exposed.

4. After the reflective metal is applied we now fill the back face back in with epoxy to make it smooth and machinable, and to permanently fix the fibreoptic ferrule in place.

5. We now apply tiny reflective dots to the front of the glass sheet. Light will be focussed on each of these dots by their respective parabolic dimples. They in turn will focus the light on the fibreoptic ferrules. Just like a reflector telescope, it uses two mirrors, one big, one small, to focus the light on the optical fibres.