Optical Design Software Users Take Advantage of Edmund Optics® Products
Press Release
August 3, 2011
August 3, 2011, Barrington, NJ USA — Radiant ZEMAX has introduced a new release
of their ZEMAX ray-tracing optical-design framework that helps optical system engineers complete
optical-product designs quickly and efficiently by giving them access to over 4,000 lenses from
Edmund Optics®’ Stock Lens Catalog
, and simulation of actual system performance.
By using a ray-tracing algorithm to test system performance computationally,
the ZEMAX software allows engineers to iteratively optimize both
lens selection and physical system layout.
Being able to choose from Edmund Optics’ vast array of optical components such as
TECHSPEC Laser-Line Coated Plano-Convex (PCX) Lenses
and TECHSPEC® Infrared (IR) Achromatic Lenses
to the company’s unique line of aspheric optical elements, assures designers the best chance of
finding the right stock components for any application.
These stock components have proven designs
manufactured to exacting quality standards in quantities that assure the lowest possible prices.
Edmund Optics’ Stock Lens Catalog is now available directly in ZEMAX’s non-sequential mode helping
engineers analyze stray light, scattering and illumination in both imaging and non-imaging systems.
Aspheric lenses are an essential solution for optical systems looking to reduce element count,
satisfy weight requirements and increase performance. ZEMAX makes it easy to design with aspheres
and EO has supported the effort by adding over one hundred new aspheric lenses.
New additions include UVgrade fused silica precision aspheric lenses for biomedical applications,
Germanium aspheric and hybrid aspheric lenses for applications in mid and long-wave infrared regions,
and TECHSPEC Plastic Hybrid Aspheric Lenses, a 2011 Photonics West Prism Award winner designed for
color correcting visual imaging systems.
In the event that a custom component is needed,
ZEMAX helps the designer develop the necessary specifications addressable
by Edmund Optics’ global manufacturing capabilities.
The software’s new surface curvature and surface curvature cross-section plots provide
new insight into the behavior of aspheric surfaces and a new SCUR operand provides control
of surface curvature during optimization. As time is always of the essence when developing a product,
the new ZEMAX software release provides expanded multiprocessor support to take advantage of
cloud computing and conventional supercomputers. The 64-bit version supports parallel
processing with up to 64 CPUs. This allows Monte Carlo simulations with up to 64 rays
simultaneously, vastly reducing simulation runtime. Faster simulations make the design
optimization process run faster and more efficiently.
It also speeds up tolerance-sensitivity analysis,
which is needed to assure product manufacturability.
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