Introduction to f-theta Lenses In the landscape of optical systems, the introduction of f-theta lenses is an important chapter, offering a solution to the challenges posed by traditional lenses in laser scanning applications. As laser technology becomes more...
Introduction LIDAR, short for Light Detection and Ranging. In recent years, LIDAR has emerged as a transformative force across a multitude of industries, revolutionizing everything from autonomous vehicles to archaeology. But what exactly is LIDAR, how does it work,...
Introduction to Telecentric Lenses An important goal in machine vision applications is taking measurements in a consistent, accurate, and precise manner. This can include measuring the dimensions of manufactured parts to guarantee they are within the design...
In a previous post, we explained the concept of a material refractive index in optics in the context of optical design. Something that we didn’t review however is that many materials have two, three (and even more) different refractive indices depending on the...
When thinking of a ‘lens’, most people have the image of a spherical lens in their mind, but there are different geometries for lenses, and one of the most common is the cylindrical lens. What’s the difference between spherical and geometrical lenses? And what...
Optical engineers focus their design efforts on the optimization of the optical components and image analysis to reduce aberrations and other unwanted image distortions. However, the optical components are not the only area where a light signal can be...
Not all optical systems create images. In some systems, detecting light intensity is enough to meet an application requirement. For those systems, it’s possible to convert an optical signal into an electrical signal using electronics and photodiodes. In...
Introduction to RMS Wavefront Error As mentioned in several articles in this blog, aberrations are of great relevance when designing an optical system. The objective being to design a system that creates a “good image”. However, there are different metrics to...
As optical systems are reduced in size, we encounter new engineering challenges when analyzing and designing lenses. These are issues that we usually don’t see when working with larger elements. This article will review some of the challenges when designing...
One important aspect of any design is user safety. This is especially important when using light sources like lasers and LEDs that may be observed by the naked eye. Disregarding safety can lead to product recalls, lawsuits, and harm to users. To protect users, a...
Introduction A 4F optical system is a system architecture that uses Fourier Optics. In this article, we will explain why we need them and how to design a simple 4f correlator. We will leave out most of the mathematical derivations, but if you are interested...
Introduction to Spot Diagrams As optical engineers, we use different tools and techniques to evaluate the performance of an optical design when simulating the system in a ray tracing program. One of those tools are spot diagrams. They may be a little bit confusing to...
Filters for selecting specific wavelengths are common in optical systems. In our microscope design article we explained the use of dichroic mirrors to select fluorescent wavelengths. In some applications optical engineers need to filter out high (UV light) or lower...
Introduction Optical relays, an integral component of various optical systems, play a crucial role when the user's proximity to the observed object is limited or when specific image transformations are required. A prevalent example of this is found in relay lenses,...
Introduction The refractive index is one of the basic concepts in optical sciences. Same as volume, and density, the refractive index is a fundamental property of all materials. However, not only materials that are used in optics have a refractive index. For example,...
Simulating any optical system in Zemax is a fundamental part of our optical design process. Among many reasons, we simulate in Zemax so we can evaluate the optical performance, whether in terms of aberrations for imaging systems or power efficiency for...
We’ve built a number of image processing systems that use Raspberry Pi and other single board computers together with OpenCV and other Python libraries such as Scikit image and Dlib. For example, take a look at this defect inspection system This works well for...
A key aspect of an optical product development is the creation of a quality optical system design optimized to reduce aberrations and system cost. In an attempt to reach a balance between cost and performance, optical designers have created lenses with different...
When integrating off the shelf lenses into optical systems, it is essential to have full information about how a lens will perform with other elements in the system. When multiple component vendors ( ie electronics, mechanical, optical) are involved, data...
One of the most famous images in the history of optics is that of Sir Isaac Newton with a beam of white light going through a glass prism and a rainbow coming out the other side. It is one of the most famous optical experiments, not only for its simplicity, but also...
