Direct design approach to calculate a two-surface lens with an entrance pupil for application in wide field-of-view imaging

Abstract. In this work, a multifields optical design method aiming to calculate two high-order aspheric lens profiles with an embedded entrance pupil is proposed. This direct design algorithm is capable of partially coupling more than three ray bundles that enter the same pupil with only two surfaces. Both infinite and finite conjugate objectives can be designed with this approach. Additional constraints such as surface continuity and smoothness are taken into account to calculate smooth and accurate surface contours described by point clouds. The calculated points are then fitted with rotationally symmetric functions commonly used in optical design tools. A presented subaperture sampling strategy that introduces a weighting function for different fields allows for a very well-balanced imaging performance over a wide field of view (FOV). As an example, a ±45  deg f/7.5 wide-angle objective is designed and analyzed to demonstrate the potential of this design method. It provides an excellent starting point for further optimization of the surfaces’ coefficients and initial design parameters, resulting in a very good and well-balanced imaging performance over the entire FOV.

[1]  Guofan Jin,et al.  Design method of surface contour for a freeform lens with wide linear field-of-view. , 2013, Optics express.

[2]  Wang Lin,et al.  Advances in the SMS design method for imaging optics , 2011, Optical Systems Design.

[3]  Yongtian Wang,et al.  Free-form lens design for wide-angle imaging with an equidistance projection scheme , 2009 .

[4]  Lei Li,et al.  Design and fabrication of a freeform microlens array for a compact large-field-of-view compound-eye camera. , 2012, Applied optics.

[5]  Xu Liu,et al.  Method to design two aspheric surfaces for imaging system. , 2013, Applied optics.

[6]  Yongtian Wang,et al.  Design of an optical see-through head-mounted display with a low f-number and large field of view using a freeform prism. , 2009, Applied optics.

[7]  Julio Chaves,et al.  Simultaneous multiple surface optical design method in three dimensions , 2004 .

[8]  Wang Lin,et al.  Overview of the SMS design method applied to imaging optics , 2009, Optical Engineering + Applications.

[9]  Koichi Takahashi.  Development of ultrawide-angle compact camera using free-form optics , 2011 .

[10]  Juan C. Miñano,et al.  Single optical surface imaging designs with unconstrained object to image mapping , 2012, Optical Systems Design.

[11]  Hugo Thienpont,et al.  Analytic free-form lens design for imaging applications with high aspect ratio , 2012, Other Conferences.

[12]  J. Macdonald,et al.  Study of extended optimization for U-type 2× zoom optics with free-form surface , 2010 .

[13]  R. Andrew Hicks,et al.  Direct methods for freeform surface design , 2007, SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications.

[14]  G W Forbes.  Robust, efficient computational methods for axially symmetric optical aspheres. , 2010, Optics express.

[15]  Robert F Fischer,et al.  Optical System Design , 2000 .

[16]  K. Thompson,et al.  A new family of optical systems employing φ-polynomial surfaces. , 2011, Optics express.

[17]  Hugo Thienpont,et al.  Analytic design method for optimal imaging: coupling three ray sets using two free-form lens profiles. , 2012, Optics express.

[18]  Robert Rennie Shannon,et al.  The Art and Science of Optical Design , 1997 .

[19]  Juan Carlos Miñano,et al.  Perfect imaging of three object points with only two analytic lens surfaces in two dimensions , 2012, Photonics Europe.

[20]  Chinhua Wang,et al.  Design of a freeform varifocal panoramic optical system with specified annular center of field of view. , 2011, Optics express.

[21]  Wang Lin,et al.  An application of the SMS method for imaging designs. , 2009, Optics express.

[22]  Alois Herkommer,et al.  Phase space optics: an alternate approach to freeform optical systems , 2013 .

[23]  Jannick P. Rolland,et al.  Freeform optics: Evolution? No, revolution! , 2012 .

[24]  Jannick P. Rolland,et al.  Design of a free-form single-element head-worn display , 2010, OPTO.

[25]  Hugo Thienpont,et al.  Potential benefits of free-form optics in on-axis imaging applications with high aspect ratio. , 2013, Optics express.

[26]  Juan Carlos Minano,et al.  Ultrahigh-numerical-aperture imaging concentrator , 1997 .