Design considerations for integrated microoptical systems combining refractive and diffractive optical components

Abstract

Planar integrated microoptical systems have been demonstrated for a variety of applications such as optical interconnects, sensing and security applications. Diffractive optical elements provide the necessary design freedom to optimize the optical performance of such systems along the folded optical axis. For enhanced optical efficiency it is necessary to combine diffractive and refractive elements within such systems. Hereby the refractive components provide most of the optical power while the diffractive elements are used as correction elements for optimized system performance. The integration of refractive components has significant consequences on the geometry of planar integrated optical systems as well as on the optical systems design. Based on this approach we present various designs for efficient planar-optical (phase-contrast) imaging systems. We compare various possibilities for the simulation of diffractive and holographic optical components and their integration in the design of planar microoptical systems. To this end we apply commercial design software (e.g. Zemax TM , ASAP TM ) as well as self programmed tools.