Ray Marching Aspheric Surfaces: Robust Ray Intersection Calculation for Design of Optical Sensors

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Computational Science
• Optical Engineering

Background:

• Designing optical sensors requires accurate ray-surface intersection calculations.
• Existing methods struggle with highly aspherical surfaces and rays at large angles.
• Improved reliability in optical modeling is crucial for advanced sensor design.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a robust method for calculating ray intersections with aspherical lens surfaces.
• To enhance the reliability of optical modeling and design for optical sensors.
• To improve intersection calculations for rays incident at large angles.

Main Methods:

• A novel ray-surface intersection algorithm for rotationally symmetric, aspherical surfaces.
• Utilizes a ray marching procedure for initial approximation in Newton's method.
• Estimates step size using analytical derivatives of the surface function.

Main Results:

• The method reliably calculates intersections for rays at large angles.
• Achieves successful intersection calculations for a significantly larger number of rays compared to existing methods.
• Demonstrates improved reliability in optical modeling and design.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method offers a robust solution for ray-surface intersection with complex optical surfaces.
• It enhances the reliability of optical design, particularly for systems with aspherical components.
• The method is suitable for iterative optimization due to its efficiency and lack of complex data structures.