In a previous article we talked about Aviation Light Optics. In that article we talked about the Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI). Now we would like to go more in detail about that system and describe their design requirements. The PAPI system is a...
optical design
RXI Collimator
byVictor Argueta|May 9, 2022|FAQ,optical design,Victor Argueta
Optical collimators also called non-imaging concentrators are optical components that can collect and project light from a source. Common examples include solar collectors that concentrate the sun's light and project it to heat a surface or direct it to solar panels....
Retinoscope Design
byVictor Argueta|Apr 14, 2022|lens design,Opthalmology,optical design,Victor Argueta
Retinoscopes are a very common optical instrument used by optometrists to examine a patient’s eye and evaluate the need of corrective lenses. They use a very interesting physical principle. Let’s first describe the optical instrument. The retinoscope is a hand held...
Keratometer Optical Design
byVictor Argueta|Mar 30, 2022|Opthalmology,optical design,Victor Argueta
In this article, we will continue our description of different optical instruments used by optometrists. Last time we talked about Ophthalmoscopes, today we will talk about another very common optical instrument called the Keratometer. The keratometer was developed...
Understanding objective lenses
byVictor Argueta|Dec 13, 2021|FAQ,lens design,Optical Components,optical design,optical engineering
Introduction In previous entries, we have talked about the design of scanning microscopes, infinity corrected microscopes, confocal microscope design, and Koehler illumination systems-a common illumination system in microscopes. The most essential microscope element...
Rigid Endoscope Design
byVictor Argueta|Dec 2, 2021|FAQ,optical design,optical engineering,Victor Argueta
Endoscopes are medical devices designed to collect the smallest images from inside the human body. Endoscopes can be divided into two categories: rigid endoscopes, in which relay lenses are stacked together generally creating a high-quality image, and flexible...
Cardinal Points
byVictor Argueta|Nov 29, 2021|FAQ,optical design,optics,Victor Argueta
When I was a young undergrad engineering student, I always found optics to be a very confusing subject. It was not only the equations, but what it looked like hundreds of different definitions involved in even the simplest of optical systems. Some concepts, like...
Powell Lens Design
byVictor Argueta|Nov 11, 2021|FAQ,lens design,machine vision,optical design
Previous posts have reviewed different techniques for beam homogenization as well as the difference between spot size and beam angle. This post will review a method for beam shaping using Powell Lenses. Powell lenses are lenses that create a straight laser line by...
Tessar Lens Design
byVictor Argueta|Aug 17, 2021|FAQ,lens design,optical design
Among the many lens design configurations, one of the most common lens optical layouts is the Tessar Lens. This layout was created by Paul Rudolph in 1902 for photographic lenses. In the golden age of film photography, the...
M squared and designing laser beam optics
byVictor Argueta|Aug 9, 2021|FAQ,optical design
There are different ways to calculate the quality of a laser beam. In general, we want our laser beam to be as close to a theoretical Gaussian Beam as possible. The question then is how do we measure the profile of our beam and how do we compare it against...
Confocal Microscope Optical Design
byVictor Argueta|Jun 23, 2021|3D,FAQ,optical design
Confocal microscopy is a very popular technique for high-quality images. It is quite useful when working with tissue or bio-samples due to the relatively simple sample preparation. Confocal microscopes are an alternative to traditional ones. While in...
Projection Lens Design
byVictor Argueta|Jun 23, 2021|illumination lens design,lens design,optical design,Zemax
Projection systems are one of the most common consumer optical devices (probably second to photographic systems). They allow us to view images on a screen (usually) by magnifying and projecting them at distances from a few centimeters to several meters away...
Fisheye Lens Design
byVictor Argueta|Jun 11, 2021|FAQ,illumination,lens design consulting,optical design
Anyone who has peaked through a hotel room peephole has used a fish eye lens. Usually, the fish eye lens has a very short focal length (less than 15mm for a 35mm-size image sensor), but a large field of view (FOV). The latter can be as large as...
Parabolic Mirror Design
byVictor Argueta|Jun 11, 2021|FAQ,optical design,optical engineering,optics definitions
抛物面镜光学系统是使用d to collect or distribute energy. They have a wide range of applications from solar collectors for water heating systems to microscopes and telescopes, and everyday flashlights. The most common way ...
Infinity Corrected Microscope Design
byVictor Argueta|2021年5月25日|optical design
Traditional Microscope systemTraditional microscope systems consist of two main optical elements: a microscope objective and an eyepiece. The microscope objective is placed close to the sample that we want analyzed. The distance between the objective lens and...
Non-sequential ray tracing
byVictor Argueta|May 17, 2021|illumination,optical design
When doing optical simulations using a program like ZEMAX, we can choose to do our simulations using two modes: sequential and non-sequential optics. Sequential optics, as the name indicates, follows the optical path of light as it goes from one surface to the next....
Apochromatic Lens Design
byVictor Argueta|May 17, 2021|FAQ,lens design,lens design consulting,optical design,optics definitions
In an achromatic lens design, we optimize such that two wavelengths, usually red (590nm) and blue (495nm), focus on the same image plane. This is done to reduce chromatic aberration. In this article, we’ll talk about a similar design type called an...
Design Considerations for Free-Space Optics
byVictor Argueta|May 6, 2021|FAQ,optical design,optics definitions
A previous post discussed underwater optical design. This week, we will review the diametrical opposite application - free-space optical communication (FSO). As with underwater optical design, one of the challenges facing FSO is the optical signal propagation...
When is a Risley Prism the best solution?
byVictor Argueta|Apr 15, 2021|FAQ,optical design,188bet欢迎您
Previous posts have explained reflective, anamorphic and dispersive prisms and their use in optical systems. Today we will explain a prism configuration called Risley Prism. A Risley prism is actually two wedge prisms close to each other that can be...
How the Abbe Sine Condition impacts optical designs
byVictor Argueta|Apr 6, 2021|FAQ,lens design,optical design
When making first order optical design calculations, most engineers use parameters based on paraxial (or ideal) systems. That is, lenses in which the chief rays are very close to the optical axis. However, that’s not always the case, and as we move...
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