Julius A. Muschaweck
CEO at JMO GmbH
SPIE Involvement:
Publications Committee | Conference Program Committee | Author | Editor | Instructor | Special Event Speaker
Area of Expertise:
Optical Design for Illumination , LEDs , Matlab , C++ , LightTools
Websites:
Profile Summary

I am a German physicist, and have been working on optical design for illumination for over twenty years. After a stay as Visiting Scholar at the University of Chicago with Prof. Roland Winston (well known as the originator of Nonimaging Optics), I was co-founder and CEO of OEC, an optical engineering service which pioneered freeform optics. Later, at OSRAM, where I held the position of Senior Principal Key Expert (the highest rank in the OSRAM/Siemens expert career), I coordinated the over 100 optical designers within OSRAM world-wide. I then joined ARRI, the leading movie camera and lamp head maker, as Principal Optical Scientist. Now, I am working as an independent consultant, providing illumination optics solutions to industry clients, teaching courses on illumination optics, and writing about the subject. I am is the author of over 25 scientific papers and the inventor of over 50 patent applications.
It is not only the surprising depth, and mathematical beauty, of illumination optics that continues to fascinate me after over 20 years in the field. What really strikes me as unique is that is beautiful, deep theory allows us to derive strong statements about what is possible, and what is impossible in our daily work as optical designers.
Publications (27)

Proceedings Article | 10 August 2024 Open Access Presentation
Proceedings Volume 13022, 1302202 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3025344

Proceedings Article | 13 May 2024 Paper
Julius Muschaweck, Kristina Uhlendorf, Barbara Flückiger, Lutz Garmsen, David Pfluger, Giorgio Trumpy, Martin Weiss
Proceedings Volume 12798, 127980E (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2691618
KEYWORDS: Light sources and illumination, Color, Scanners, Optical design, Light emitting diodes, Waveguides, Dyes, Diffusers, Tunable filters, Optical transmission

Proceedings Article | 14 September 2023 Paper
Proceedings Volume 12798, 127980H (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2691622
KEYWORDS: Light sources and illumination, Geometrical optics, Inhomogeneities, Monochromatic aberrations, Telescopes, Rods, Reflection

Proceedings Article | 14 September 2023 Paper
Proceedings Volume 12798, 127980J (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3005730
KEYWORDS: Design and modelling, Light sources and illumination, Waveguides, Solids, Prisms, Hollow waveguides, Optical design, Total internal reflection, Refraction, Reflection

SPIE Journal Paper | 26 July 2023
OE, Vol. 62, Issue 07, 070401, (July 2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.10.1117/1.OE.62.7.070401
KEYWORDS: Light emitting diodes, Matrices, Collimation, Optical engineering, Light sources and illumination, Light sources, Optical design, Data modeling, Lamps, Collimators

Showing 5 of 27 publications
Proceedings Volume Editor (2)

SPIE Conference Volume | 11 December 2017

SPIE Conference Volume | 20 January 2015

Conference Committee Involvement (12)
Nonimaging Optics: Efficient Design for Illumination and Concentration XX
3 August 2025 | San Diego, California, United States
Optical Design and Testing XIV
13 October 2024 | Nantong, Jiangsu, China
Illumination Optics VII
8 April 2024 | Strasbourg, France
Optical Design and Testing XIII
14 October 2023 | Beijing, China
Optical Design and Testing XII
5 December 2022 | Online Only, China
Showing 5 of 12 Conference Committees
Course Instructor
SC1313: Designing Illumination Optics
This course first explains the deep, beautiful, and immensely useful theory of light for illumination: the theory that lets us see what can or cannot be done in illumination optics, and that guides us towards viable solutions. Ètendue, the most mysterious quantity in illumination optics is fully explained and revealed as the most important quantity in illumination optics. Then, the course introduces “design patterns” in illumination optics: optical elements as building blocks, providing reusable solution approaches to recurring problems. These building blocks (e.g., TIR lenses, mixing rods and Köhler illumination) are explained by what they do to the light, and how to combine them. Practical examples as well as exercises with solutions for later self-study are an integral part of the course.
SC1314: Colorimetry for LED Users
This course first introduces basic concepts of colorimetry, human color vision, the common CIE color spaces, color difference metrics and color rendering metrics. Additive color mixing is what happens when two or more LEDs are combined in a single source. Fortunately, there is an easy to grasp, intuitive visualization of additive color mixing in the common CIE 1931 XYZ color space. Building on this colorimetric foundation, the three major LED families are introduced: InGaN blue-green, InGaAlP yellow-red, and InGaN-plus-phosphor white. The spectral and electrical properties of all three LED families vary from LED to LED, and even for a single LED, with temperature and current. The course shows how these variations can be modeled, for arbitrary operating conditions, from data sheet information only. Finally, the circle back to colorimetry is closed by using some examples to show how to quantitatively compute the colorimetric effects of these LED variations. Throughout the course, practical examples of colorimetric computations and LED modeling are presented, using the instructor’s open source, public domain Matlab® spectrum library.
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