Design tools for freeform optics

Kenneth Garrard; Thomas Bruegge; Jeff Hoffman; Thomas Dow; Alex Sohn

doi:10.1117/12.617680

23 August 2005 Design tools for freeform optics

Kenneth Garrard, Thomas Bruegge, Jeff Hoffman, Thomas Dow, Alex Sohn

Proceedings Volume 5874, Current Developments in Lens Design and Optical Engineering VI; 58740A (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.617680
Event: Optics and Photonics 2005, 2005, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Freeform Optical surfaces are defined as any non-rotationally symmetric surface or a symmetric surface that is rotated about any axis that is not its axis of symmetry. These surfaces offer added degrees of freedom that can lead to lower wavefront error and smaller system size as compared to rotationally symmetric surfaces. Unfortunately, freeform optics are viewed by many designers as more difficult and expensive to manufacture than rotationally symmetric optical surfaces. For some freeform surfaces this is true, but a designer has little or no feedback to quantify the degree of difficulty for manufacturing a surface. This paper describes a joint effort by Optical Research Associates (ORA) and the Precision Engineering Center (PEC) at North Carolina State University to integrate metrics related to the cost and difficulty of manufacturing a surface into the merit function that is used during the design of an optical system using Code V. By incorporating such information into the merit function, it is possible to balance optical performance and manufacturability early in the design process.

Citation Download Citation

Kenneth Garrard, Thomas Bruegge, Jeff Hoffman, Thomas Dow, and Alex Sohn "Design tools for freeform optics", Proc. SPIE 5874, Current Developments in Lens Design and Optical Engineering VI, 58740A (23 August 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.617680

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