Design of optical systems that maximize as-built performance using tolerance/compensator-informed optimization

Area of Science:

• Optical Engineering
• System Design
• Aberration Theory

Background:

• Designing optical systems traditionally focuses on nominal performance, often neglecting the impact of manufacturing tolerances.
• Real-world optical systems deviate from ideal designs due to factors like decentered optics and element imperfections.
• Predicting and mitigating performance degradation caused by these tolerances is crucial for practical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a computational approach for designing optical systems that optimizes for as-built performance, considering user-defined tolerances and compensators.
• To integrate nodal aberration theory and double Zernike polynomials for accurate modeling of tolerance effects.
• To reduce the computational overhead typically associated with tolerance analysis during the design phase.

Main Methods:

• Utilized nodal aberration theory to analyze the impact of decentered optics.
• Employed double Zernike polynomials for comprehensive system performance quantification and wavefront error analysis.
• Developed an analytic method to determine necessary compensator adjustments and predict residual wavefront error due to specified tolerances.
• Designed and evaluated a triplet optical system using the developed approach, comparing its Monte Carlo-simulated as-built performance against a conventionally optimized design.

Main Results:

• The proposed approach enables the design of optical systems with predictable and optimized as-built performance.
• It effectively quantifies the impact of tolerances and identifies necessary compensations with minimal computational cost.
• A case study demonstrated superior as-built performance for a triplet designed with this method compared to a conventionally optimized system.

Conclusions:

• The developed approach provides a robust framework for designing optical systems that perform optimally in their manufactured state.
• It significantly enhances the reliability of optical system performance predictions by incorporating tolerance analysis early in the design process.
• The method offers extensions for broader applicability in optical system design and tolerance management.