A designer of an IR optical system needs to account for key specifications that greatly impact the complexity of the device construction and its production cost. The most important requirements are described below. The maximum achievable theoretical resolution in...
The selection of optical materials is a critical step in the design of infrared optics. Traditional optical materials (optical glasses and plastics) used in the design of visible radiation optics aren’t suitable due to their high light absorption coefficient in the...
In recent years, a key differentiator among the competing smart phone manufacturers has been their cameras. A quick look at the marketing for the Apple iphone, Samsung Galaxy, LG, Nokia, and HTC smart phones demonstrates how important outstanding camera performance...
Planning for manufacturing The right time to start planning for production is at the start of an optical engineering project. Design is closely tied to manufacturing and early choices will be greatly impacted by the anticipated production method. It is not unusual to...
According to ISO 10110 standard, optical coatings are divided into protective and functional coatings. Protective types are coated onto optical elements when the safety of optical surfaces matters and a functional coating is needed. For example, an optical device to...
Based on ISO 10110 standard, one of the key parameters in optical drawings is the radius of curvature of lens surfaces. It is specified on the first line of the surfaces column in the table of parameters. You can click here to review. The lens optical properties are...
Updated June 2020. Our recent post described how to read optical production drawings. One of the parameters frequently found in optical drawings, "Datum Surface," should be covered more closely. Datum definition As defined by both ISO and ANSI technical standards,...
Updated June 2020. In our previous article, we discussed how to read optical drawings while in this installment, we will focus on surface finish details. Optical lens performance can be heavily affected by the lens surface roughness. The surface texture symbols are...
