Optical software

Freeform optical elements give optical designers new and exciting degrees of freedom when it comes to designing optics for illumination applications. These same freeform elements can also add a new layer of complexity to the design process due to added degrees of freedom.

Lidar systems are complex, dynamic devices involving both optical, mechanical, and electronic components that must work together while interacting reliably with a widely varying external environment. It is the optical part of the system that interacts with the environment, and so it is through optical modeling that we can gain a crucial insight into expected performance under varying conditions.

In this paper, we will take a brief look at how illumination ray tracing software can be used by engineers to gain these insights into expected lidar system performance before building expensive prototype systems.

The conventional optical design approach results in designs that are very sensitive to manufacturing and alignment errors, which means the optical product is difficult to repeatedly manufacture successfully.

A new method, called High-Yield Optimization, produces designs that meet tight performance specifications, provide a higher manufacturing yield, and lower manufacturing costs through less waste.