Using spline surfaces in optical design software

Abstract

Splines are commonly used to describe smooth freeform surfaces in Computer Aided Design (CAD) and computer graphic rendering programs. Various spline surface implementations are also available in optical design programs including lens design software. These surface forms may be used to describe general aspheric surfaces, surfaces thermally perturbed and interpolated surfaces from data sets. Splines are often used to fit a surface to a set of data points either on the surface or acting as control points. Spline functions are piecewise cubic polynomials defined over several discrete intervals. Continuity conditions are assigned at the intersections as the function crosses intervals defining a smooth transition. Bi-Cubic splines provide C2 continuity, meaning that the first and second derivatives are equal at the crossover point. C2 continuity is useful outcome of this interpolation for optical surface representation. This analysis will provide a review of the various types of spline interpolation methods used and consider additional forms that may be useful. A summary of the data inputs necessary for two and three-dimensional splines will be included. An assessment will be made for the fitting accuracy of the various types of splines to optical surfaces. And a survey of applications of spline surfaces in optical systems analysis will be presented.