Photonics West happens February 1-6, 2020, in San Francisco, California. If you’re planning to attend, please join us for the following talks:

Topic: Next-generation optical design methodology

Presenter: Alessandra Croce, ​Zemax Senior Optical Engineer

As the requirements for high performance optical systems become more and more demanding, it is increasingly important that every stage of the optical design process is optimized to ensure that manufactured systems meet specification. In her paper, Zemax Senior Optical Engineer Alessandra Croce demonstrates how bringing the effects of tolerance defects into the optimization step, through the OpticStudio High-Yield Optimization tool, can result in systems with higher as-built performance at potentially lower cost. Croce will present a case study showing the utility of this technique on a high-performance imaging system, such as may be found in medical or consumer electronics applications. 

Topic: OpticStudio TrueFreeform optimization for complex illumination systems
Presenters: Katsumoto Ikeda,  Zemax Principal Optical Engineer and Shawn Gay, Zemax Computational Physics Team Manager

In recent years, there has been a growing need for lighting equipment that creates complex, specific illumination and light intensity distributions, such as road surface drawing lamps, aesthetic design lighting, and direct backlighting. When designing such lighting equipment, optical engineers must often use a cut-off method, which is a method of projecting a partially shaded image. This method is inefficient as it is purposefully cutting off the light source for illumination. Zemax Principal Optical Engineer Katsumoto Ikeda and Zemax Computational Physics Team Manager Shawn Gay propose a design solution that meets the high demand for illumination performance in a simpler configuration, using complex freeform surfaces with the OpticStudio TrueFreeform™ model. The TrueFreeform method allows for spatially selective optimization of the surface sag over a grid of points, resulting in higher system efficiency. An example comparing performance between conventional parametric design and the TrueFreeform method of design will be presented.

Topic: Self-consistent analysis of the structural, thermal, and optical performance of a steering prism pair
Presenter: Vladimir Smagley​, Zemax Senior Computational Physicist

The accurate assessment of system performance for many optical designs requires incorporation of structural and thermal analyses. Zemax Senior Computational Physicist Vladimir Smagley presents the structural/thermal/optical performance (STOP) analysis of a system that contains a pair of steering prisms that can be clocked with respect to one another, to steer a beam over a range of angles. Heating of the first prism affects the beam position on the second prism, and thus the absorbed power. A self-consistent analysis of this system requires iteration between the structural, thermal, and optical models. This is done using the Zemax OpticStudio STOP module coupled to thermal and structural FEA solvers.