Patent ID: 7201481

Claim:
A method for producing contact lenses, comprising the steps of: (I) obtaining a lens-forming composition including (a) a hydrophilic monomer, (b) a hydrophobic aromatic or aliphatic monomer or a mixture thereof in an amount effective to provide a polymerization product of the lens-forming composition with an increased oxygen permeability, (c) a tris(siloxy)silyl group-containing monomer, (d) a fluorinated monomer containing about 3 to about 20 fluorine atoms and 4 to about 20 carbon atoms per monomer molecule, in an amount effective to provide said copolymer with an increased water content at equilibrium hydration, and (e) an amount of cross-linker sufficient to provide the polymerization product of the lens-forming composition with a stress at break value of about 0.003 to about 30 N/mm 2 , elongation at break of about 25 to about 3000 percent and a modulus value of about 0.001 to about 10 N/mm 2 ; (II) introducing a desired amount of the lens forming composition into a mold; (III) polymerizing under UV irradiation the lens-forming composition disposed in the mold to form a contact lens having an oxygen permeability of about 45 to about 150 Dk units and a hydrated water content of about 20 to about 55 weight percent.