Generalized surface contributions for misalignment sensitivity analysis

摘要

Analysis of surface-by-surface Seidel aberration contributions is the conventional approach for detecting surfaces sensitive to tolerances in the axially symmetric optical systems. Analogical tool for generalized systems is currently not provided in the optical design programs. Here we present an alternative numerical method to find surface contribution to the total wave aberration without limitation to the certain expansion order and with no constraints on system geometry. Surface contributions are further divided due to their origin into intrinsic, induced and transfer components. Each component is determined from the separate set of rays. In order to specify numerically obtained wavefront errors, the method is combined with Zernike fringe decomposition routine. As an example, sensitivity to tilt errors in a plane symmetric three mirror system consisting of convex mirrors with equal optical powers, was studied. The mirrors in the system are considered with spherical and toroidal basic shapes, with the freeform element placed on different positions, giving in total six configurations. We down select the least and the most sensitive system and present the detailed tolerance analysis.