Planar optical waveguide lens design

Achieving diffraction-limited planar waveguide lenses is not an easy task in practice. However, conventional lens design principles (ray tracing, intercept and OPD errors, point spread functions, and optimization techniques) may be used to evaluate performance, reduce cost or complexity, and provide alignment and manufacturing tolerances. Presented here (as an example of an optimization technique) is a new diffraction-limited planar waveguide lens. It is f/1.5 and has a compact rectangular shape.