Integrating Optical, Mechanical, and Test Software (with applications to FreeForm optics)

摘要

Optical systems must perform under environmental conditions including thermal and mechanical loading. To predict the performance in the field, integrated analysis combining optical and mechanical software is required. Freeform and conformal optics offer many new opportunities for optical design. The unconventional geometries can lead to unconventional, and therefore unintuitive, mechanical behavior. Finite element (FE) analysis offers the ability to predict the deformations of freeform optics under various environments and load conditions. To understand the impact on optical performance, the deformations must be brought into optical analysis codes. This paper discusses several issues related to the integrated optomechanical analysis of freeform optics.