The course objective is to enhance the skills and knowledge of attendees to move into the exciting world of contemporary lens design and develop practical lenses needed for the great variety of 21st-century applications. A variety of fundamental methods and procedures will be explored that are useful in designing practical lens systems. Although most modern lens design programs offer some means for the program to creatively design lenses, the lens designer still needs to be able to guide the program by understanding (1) what basic lens configuration is appropriate, (2) the practicability of lenses designed by the program, and (3) what alternative configuration changes can be made to achieve design objectives.

The course objective is to enhance the skills and knowledge of attendees to move into the exciting world of contemporary infrared optical design and develop practical optics needed for an expanding variety of 21st-century infrared systems applications. Although most modern lens design programs offer some means for the program to creatively design lenses, the lens designer still needs to be able to guide the program by understanding (1) what basic lens configuration is appropriate, (2) the practicability of lenses designed by the program, and (3) what alternative configuration changes can be made to achieve design objectives. A variety of methods and procedures will be explored that are useful in designing practical refractive, reflective, and catadioptric fixed-focus and zoom infrared optical systems. A number of design issues peculiar to infrared optical systems, such as materials, narcissus, cold stop/shield, Lyot stop, and thermal compensation, will be discussed.

This course provides the attendees with an understanding of basic image formation, simple optical systems, commonly used complex lens systems, aberrations of lens systems, performance estimation, and methods to select or evaluate lens systems. Techniques to select "off-the-shelf" optics to meet an imaging need are discussed. Practical aspects of understanding lenses and their selection are incorporated throughout the course.