With the advancement in sensors, hyperspectral imaging in short wave infrared (SWIR 0.9 μm to 1.7 μm) now has wide applications, including night vision, haze-penetrating imaging, etc. Most conventional optical glasses can be material candidates for designing in the SWIR as they transmit up to 2.2 μm. However, since SWIR is in the middle of the glasses’ major absorption wavebands in UV and IR, the flint glasses in SWIR are less dispersive than in the visible spectrum. As a result, the glass map in the SWIR is highly compressed, with crowns and flints all clustering together. Thus correcting for chromatic aberration is more challenging in the SWIR, since the Abbé number ratio of the same glass combination is reduced. Conventionally, fluorides, such as CaF2 and BaF2, are widely used in designing SWIR system due to their unique dispersion properties, even though they are notorious for poor manufacturability or even high toxicity. For lens elements in a zoom system, the ray bundle samples different sections of the each lens aperture as the lens zooms. This creates extra uncertainty in correcting chromatic aberrations. This paper focuses on using only commercially available optical glasses to color-correct a 3X dual-band zoom lens system in the VIS-SWIR. The design tools and techniques are detailed in terms of material selections to minimize the chromatic aberrations in such a large spectrum band and all zoom positions. Examples are discussed for designs with different aperture stop locations, which considerably affect the material choices.
A design study is compiled for a VIS-SWIR dual band 3X zoom lens. The initial first order design study investigated zoom motion, power in each lens group, and aperture stop location. All designs were constrained to have both the first and last lens groups fixed, with two middle moving groups. The first order solutions were filtered based on zoom motion, performance, and size constraints, and were then modified to thick lens solutions for the SWIR spectrum. Successful solutions in the SWIR were next extended to the VIS-SWIR. The resulting nine solutions are all nearly diffraction limited using either PNNP or PNPZ (“Z” indicating the fourth group has a near-zero power) design forms with two moving groups. Solutions were found with the aperture stop in each of the four lens groups. Fixed f-number solutions exist when the aperture stop is located at the first and last lens groups, while varying f-number solutions occur when it is placed at either of the middle moving groups. Design exploration included trade-offs between parameters such as diameter, overall length, back focal length, number of elements, materials, and performance.
We developed software design tools in MATLAB that are compatible with Code V for supporting the process of designing zoom lenses. These tools simplify the process of finding paraxial solutions and evaluating intermediary design steps. Paraxial solutions are found through a partially random search for four group zoom systems with moving second and third groups. It requires several user-specified system parameters and then randomly assigns powers to each group. This process of randomly assigning powers is done a set number of times and only the valid solutions where no lenses crash are considered for further use. The valid designs are plotted over different design criteria and can then be selected to retrieve the first order design parameters. For the intermediate design process, the software displays lens specifications and diagnostic results across zoom for the entire lens as well as the individual groups. Systematic evaluation of the intermediate design steps is useful in determining how to proceed and improve the design. The design process is described for two different zoom lenses to show the efficiency and utility of these tools. The two zoom lenses are a 16x surveillance camera zoom lens working in the visible and a 3X zoom lens working in the visible and short wave infrared. The design procedure for these lenses covers finding the paraxial solutions to evaluating the lens for further improvement.
A design study is conducted in the 1-5μm wavelength band for an F/3, 15 degree full field of view, 38mm focal length imaging system. A survey of preferred materials shows the chromatic properties of homogeneous materials in different regions of this spectrum. A survey of GRIN materials, including zinc selenide zinc sulfide GRIN, aluminum oxynitride GRIN, and chalcogenide GRIN, expands the available chromatic properties in this spectral band. Baseline homogeneous triplet designs are explored and compared to previous studies in the literature. The inclusion of a GRIN material in the three element design improves the chromatic correction and results in a system that is nearly diffraction-limited. The three element design is reduced to two elements, where both elements are GRIN, while maintaining comparable performance to the homogeneous triplet.
Conference Committee Involvement (2)
Dimensional Optical Metrology and Inspection for Practical Applications IX
27 April 2020 | Online Only, California, United States
Dimensional Optical Metrology and Inspection for Practical Applications VIII
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