Method for designing optical systems from the off-the-shelf optical components

Abstract

Several off-the-shelf optical lenses and lens components are available for use in the design of new optical systems. But there isn’t a clear methodology on how effective there can be in a real optical device. It should be noted that the use of standard optical elements reduces the cost of the optical device, which is especially important for mass production. Ease and speed of replacement are also important parameters for the usability of standard optical elements. That is why the extensive use of purchased optical elements in optical devices will simplify their operation and improve the convenience of maintenance. Selecting purchased optical components of an optical circuit is not an easy task and requires certain skills. The main problem is that the optical design stage is divided into two parts. The first part is the creation of an optical circuit from non-standard (custom) optical components with optical characteristics close to cataloging lenses. The second part is to adjust the position of the optical component to satisfy specification requirements. This process sometimes required several iterations. For the process of fitting distances in an optical system to be successful, it is necessary to take into account the properties of optical glasses such as refractive index and dispersion when choosing lens components, in addition to their focal lengths and geometrical dimensions. It should be noted that in the catalogs of optical components there are optical parameters of lenses, and also glass parameters of the lens. This is essential information for lens designers to substitution the custom optical element for the off-the-shelf lens. Problems that arise with such a replacement are based on a limited number of standard lenses and lens components. To get comfortable for replacement, the custom lenses components must be modified (adjusted) so that optical parameters will be close enough to the parameters of the catalog lenses other words during the custom lenses optimization process the lens shapes and an optical power should be fully matched (in the ideal case) with catalog lenses data. Method how to effectively get this match will be discussed below.