UKODM 2022 | UK Optical Design Meeting
16 March 2022
University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
The 2022 UK Optical Design Meeting (UKODM-2022) was held in the Senate Room, 4th Fl., Gilbert Scott Bldg. at the University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, 16 March 2022. The meeting was a one-day event, allowing local attendees the convenience and economy of a one-day excursion to the venue. Attendees included optical design professionals, University of Glasgow academics and students, plus other interested persons.
Sponsorship of lunch and coffee break refreshments at UKODM-2022 was provided by Synopsys, Optical Solutions Group; Photonics Scotland; SCHOTT AG and Thales Group UK.
PROGRAMME |
| 08:45 | Arrival and Coffee |
| 09:15 | Welcome: Tina E. Kidger, CEO, Kidger Optics Associates and Andrew Harvey, (School of Physics & Astronomy), University of Glasgow Morning Session Chair: Tina E. Kidger |
| 09:20 Keynote |
Optics for VR headsets Juan C. Miñano, Pablo Benítez Cedint, University Politécnica de Madrid |
| 10:05 | High-speed, 100-megapixel, micron-resolution with a 3D-printed microscope: multi-camera Fourier ptychography Andrew R Harvey, Pavan Konda, Jonathan Taylor and Tomas Aidukas School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK |
| 10:35 | Molding the Flow of Light with 3D Photonic Materials and with Wavefront Shaping Willem L. Vos University of Twente, NE |
| 11:05 | Coffee Break |
| 11:25 | Merging Optics and Photonics Vladan Blahnik Zeiss Oberkochen, DE |
| 12:05 | The conceptual optical design for the European Solar Telescope Sergio Bonaque Gonzalez European Solar Telescope, Tenerife, Spain |
| 12:35 | Space Optics at SSTL Andrew Haslehurst Surrey Sattelite Tecnology Ltd, Surrey, UK |
| 12:55 | BUFFET LUNCHEON, sponsored by: Optical Solutions Group, Synopsys Inc. USA |
| 13:45 | Afternoon Session Introduction Chair: Andrew Harvey School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK |
| 13:50 | Maxwell’s “Absolute Instruments”: modern realisations with conventional optical elements Andrew Rakich Mersenne Optical Consulting, Wellington & Wairarapa, NZ |
| 14:30 | Desensitization for aspheric camera designs in CODE V Adrien Tozzoli Optical Solutions Group, Synopsys Inc. Munich, DE |
| 15:00 | Optical design for industrial applications Duncan Walker Walker Optics Ltd, UK |
| 15:30 | Coffee Break |
| 16:00 | New optical glasses and filter glasses for the future Philipp Leimer, Uwe Petzold, Ralf Biertümpfel SCHOTT AG, Mainz, DE |
| 16:30 | Measurement-driven optical designs in microscopy Jonathan Taylor University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK |
| 17:00 | Closing Remarks Andrew Harvey University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK |
Sponsored by:
University of Glasgow
Synopsys – Optical Solutions Group
Schott AG
Thales Group, UK
Photonics Scotland
Cooperating Organization:
SPIE EUROPE
For further details please contact:
Tina Kidger, Kidger Optics Associates
European Events Consultant
Synopsys – Optical Solutions Group
e-mail: tina@kidger.com
ABSTRACTS
Optics for VR headsets
Juan C. Miñano, Pablo Benítez
Cedint, University Politécnica de Madrid
Reducing the size of Virtual Reality head-mounted displays while maintaining the optical quality is of main interest to improve the comfort of users. This is a particularly complex design problem due to the very large field of view and high resolution needed to feel the immersion. High compactness with high transmission efficiency and high contrast can be achieved by multichannel optics, whose design for high performance is carried out at LIMBAK introducing intensively freeform optical surfaces, increased resolution via variable magnification, dynamic mapping control and super-sampling via pixel interlacing. This presentation will cover the growing variety of geometries, how to address their challenges and envision their future.
High-speed, 100-megapixel, micron-resolution with a 3D-printed microscope: multi-camera Fourier ptychography
Andrew R Harvey, Pavan Konda, Jonathan Taylor and Tomas Aidukas
School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK
The ability of a microscope to record wide-field, high- resolution images is fundamentally limited by diffraction and optical aberrations. Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM) employs aperture synthesis to computationally fuse and correct for aberrations in multiple bandpass-filtered images recorded using time-sequential synthesis of high-NA illumination using an LED array. We report parallelisation of FPM using multiple 2MP cameras and simple low-NA singlet microscope objectives to record 1.1-micron-resolution 89-megapixel images across an extended field of view of 26mm2. Our generalisation of the FPM technique enables a scalable increase in acquisition speed (we demonstrate 9x increase) and our image-construction algorithms enable diffraction-limited imaging using 3D-printed opto-mechanics over periods of many hours.
Molding the Flow of Light with 3D Photonic Materials and with
Wavefront Shaping
Willem L. Vos
University of Twente, NE
Abstract TBD
Merging Optics and Photonics
Vladan Blahnik
Zeiss Oberkochen, DE
An increasing number of optics and photonics systems are being produced by lithographic methods (wafer-level manufacturing, photonic integrated chips) to lower cost or to increase functions per volume. This enables new mass applications like Lidar Systems for autonomous driving vehicles or handheld devices that greatly simplify regular medical monitoring like miniaturized optical coherence tomography systems. We look at the new challenges for the optical design of such devices and give examples of system layouts for the mass market.
The conceptual optical design for the European Solar Telescope
Sergio Bonaque Gonzalez
European Solar Telescope, Tenerife, Spain
The European Solar Telescope (EST) is a next generation large-aperture solar telescope. With a 4.2-metre primary mirror and a deformable secondary mirror, it will be optimised for studies of the magnetic coupling of the solar atmosphere by using multi-wavelength imaging, spectroscopy and spectropolarimetry. EST will specialise in high spatial and temporal resolution, using cutting-edge multi conjugate adaptive optics and a thorough polarimetric calibration. In this talk we will give an overview about the current state of EST optical design.
Space Optics at SSTL
Andrew Haslehurst
Surrey Sattelite Tecnology Ltd, Surrey, UK
Abstract TBD
Maxwell’s “Absolute Instruments”: modern realisations
with conventional optical elements
Andrew Rakich
Mersenne Optical Consulting, Wellington & Wairarapa, New Zealand
Maxwell was the first to consider what constituted a “perfect optical instrument”. By Maxwell’s definition a perfect instrument meets three criteria:
1) It produces stigmatic point imagery for all object points.
2) It introduces no mapping errors (distortion).
3) It preserves object curvature.
Maxwell showed that if an optical system is perfect for two different planes perpendicular to the optical axis and at differing axial distances, then the system would be perfect for all objects. Such systems are often described as “Absolute Instruments”, and these produce an exact scale image of the 3-dimensional volume of object space. This paper will investigate the theory underpinning absolute instruments, before going on to discuss the known types of absolute instrument that use conventional optics. Finally, a new class of absolute instrument will be described, together with its application to the simultaneous correction of the stellar-field and laser guide stars, pupils and metapupils, in a modern Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) system, on the European Southern Observatory’s “E-ELT”.
Desensitization for aspheric camera designs in CODE V
Adrien Tozzoli
Optical Solutions Group, Synopsys Inc., Munich, DE
Compact aspheric camera designs are ubiquitous in today’s modern optical systems. The use of molded plastic optics has enabled fabrication of high-performance optics in smaller and smaller form factors. In addition to standard imaging applications, these optics are present in consumer electronics, medical devices, industrial inspection and sensing optics, very often in high volumes. Today’s optical design engineers are challenged to create higher performance designs to meet demands in this wide range of applications, using modern optical design software. It is critical to focus on the as-built performance of these optical systems, since it relates directly to the expected yield in mass production. In this presentation, we will cover some techniques useful for desensitization of these challenging forms of optical designs.
Optical design for industrial applications
Duncan Walker
Walker Optics Ltd, UK
Over recent years there has been a rapid increase in the number of different applications that are using optics in the hardware whether for illumination, imaging, spectrometry or other diagnostic techniques. Building the optics into the hardware is becoming an everyday requirement. However as with incorporation of the electronics, mechanics and industrial design, the optical design also requires specific skills. To build a successful system, an optical designer must not only consider the optics but also balance the overall requirements including mechanical, environmental and budgetary constraints. The best systems are designed when the optical designer is involved throughout the design process from writing the specifications through to the completion of the system. This presentation will discuss the process from start to finish, illustrated with some case studies.
New optical glasses and filter glasses for the future
Philipp Leimer, Uwe Petzold, Ralf Biertümpfel
SCHOTT AG, Mainz, DE
Current market trends request special optical positions and more extreme features of optical glasses. SCHOTT offers new glass types and metrology upgrades to ensure the next generation of optical devices. SCHOTT presents new high index glasses to enable compact designs e.g. for mobile devices, UV transparent materials enabling disinfection, low dispersion glasses for superior chromatic correction, radiation resistant glasses for tough environments, new filter glasses for autonomous driving, higher accuracy on its refractometers, SWIR data for broad band designs, and conformity to restrictions like RoHS, Reach or ISO standards.
Measurement-driven optical designs in microscopy
Jonathan Taylor
University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Application-specific optical system design can enable high-quality measurement even using simple low-cost optics. Optical system design is commonly driven by universal metrics such as image resolution. However, a system optimised to measure a specific quantity (e.g. velocity) may end up looking very different. We will present two examples of this philosophy. We will show how “light field microscopy” for snapshot 3D imaging suffers from major image reconstruction artefacts and yet still allows velocity estimation. We will also demonstrate efficient measurement of an abstract quantity (phase of the heartbeat in a living animal) using optical compressed sensing with a compression ratio so high that an image of the target could never have been reconstructed.
POSTER ABSTRACTS
Computational 3D localisation microscopy at the nanoscale
Conall Thompson, Jonathan Taylor and Andrew R Harvey
School of Physics and Astronomy
University of Glasgow
Glasgow, Scotland
Although the resolution of a microscope is limited by diffraction to about half a wavelength, point-like single molecules or beads can be localised with nanometre precision, but only over a depth of field of about a micron. Engineering of the microscope pupil function can yield exotic point-spread functions, which enable localisation of point sources throughout extended 3D volumes, but their spatial extent limits the maximum density of emitters that can be imaged. We describe how computational imaging using a twin-Airy PSF enables nanometre-scale localisation of far larger numbers and densities of point sources than previously reported. Our new technique shows promise for enhanced 3D single-molecule imaging and nano-scale chemical sensing in biology.
Lenslet Arrays for Medical Spectacles
Maik Locher, Johannes Courtial
University of Glasgow
Glasgow, Scotland
A properly constructed telescope window array may aid with several visual impairments, such as central vision loss, field of view constrictions and more. While in theory using idealised lenses such applications have already been proven computationally, steps converting it into a reality have been met with a number of issues. Here we will attempt to overcome current limitations ranging from cross talk between telescopes to image pixilation. Some steps to solve these may include turning pixels into channels and field of view steering. If this is successful, it will be possible to build and test such novel medical spectacles.
PSF Engineering for Snapshot Volumetric Imaging
Daniel Olesker, Andrew R. Harvey and Jonathan M. Taylor
University of Glasgow
Glasgow, Scotland
The time needed to acquire 3D microscopy images via conventional serial-scanning methods is limited by their dependence on translating the illumination or sample. For highly dynamic scenes, faster imaging methods are required that don’t rely on scanning to image in 3D. We report a hybrid method that combines pupil-plane-engineering with computational reconstruction to achieve snapshot 3D imaging. By choosing appropriate microscope point-spread functions, we extend the depth-of-field while simultaneously encoding depth information into 2D images, enabling full volumetric reconstruction to be performed post-acquisition with a novel deconvolution scheme. We demonstrate our method experimentally across a range of scales and samples.
Multi-Scale imaging of the retina
Joel Terry, Guillem Carles, A. R. Harvey
School of Physics and Astronomy
University of Glasgow
Glasgow, Scotland
Imaging the retina is fundamentally limited by the optical quality of the eye optics, but this varies enormously across the field of view; from near diffraction-limited on axis to strongly aberrated for imaging of the periphery. It is almost impossible to design a single optical system to correct for these field-varying aberrations. We describe how multi-scale imaging, involving multiple cameras and local aberration correction enables near-diffraction-limited imaging across an extended field of view.
Portable microscopy using smartphones for use in low-resource settings
Oliver Higgins
University of Glasgow
Glasgow, Scotland
Despite there being around 1400 recognised human pathogens and parasites, two-thirds of deaths are caused by just a few species; around 20 varieties of bacteria, parasites and viruses. Identifying the presence of these pathogens is a key step in diagnosis, but more than 50% of African populations do not have access to adequate public health services, leaving many communities to suffer high mortality rates from otherwise treatable conditions. We present a low-cost 3D-printed smartphone microscope which uses deep learning to automate the diagnosis of parasitic infections to reduce the equipment requirements for disease diagnosis in underserved settings.
The Importance of Optical Performance Stability of the European Solar Telescope.
Marta Belío-Asin
Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics
Tenerife, Spain
The European Solar Telescope (EST) will be a 4-metre class solar telescope, which will require overcoming major challenges at the limits of technology. To reach its objectives, an important aspect is to ensure that the performance of the system will not be affected during operation. In this sense, sensitivity analysis is an essential design concern to be addressed. Several sources of degradation will compromise the reliability of the system; these include environmental conditions such as gravity, temperature or wind, which will displace the optical elements of the telescope from its nominal position. By developing an image motion sensitivity analysis it is possible to relate the motion of the optical components with the image motion at any of the focus of the system, F1, F2 and F3 (Coudé Focus) with the aim of adjusting the telescope while operating. This process is also meant to be a baseline for the active optics subsystem, a crucial part of the telescope with a strategy that is being defined to prevent any misalignment due to these environmental constraints and to ensure compliance with image quality requirements.
Modelling and fabrication of low cost miniature visible and near-infrared spectrometers using linear variable filters
Lewis Fleming
University of the West of Scotland
Paisley, Scotland, UK
To meet the ever-increasing demand for low-cost, lightweight and portable miniature spectrometer systems for industrial and aerospace applications, linear variable filters (LVFs) have a number of advantages over traditional optical dispersion devices utilising prisms and gratings. Here, we describe the optical system design of an LVF s pectrometer for visible and near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths. A spectrometer optical system is modelled (Zemax OpticStudio) using a combination of reflector mirrors, parabolic concentrator and light pipe; wavelength selection is modelled by importing an LVF design (Essential Macleod) as a tapered coating into the spectrometer model. The LVFs were fabricated using microwave plasma assisted DC magnetron sputtering. Spectrometer chassis was realised using 3D printing. A 3D printed LVF based spectrometer system was fabricated and operation over visible (450 nm – 900 nm) and near infrared (1500 nm – 2500 nm) wavebands demonstrated.
Automatic tube lens design from stock optics for microscope remote-refocusing systems
Wenzhi Hong and Chris Dunsby
Photonics Group, Department of Physics
Imperial College London, London, UK
In order to operate remote-refocussing microscope systems correctly, it requires that the overall magnification of the first two microscope systems matches the ratio of the refractive indices in sample and intermedia image spaces. However, commercially available tube lenses are not always suitable to produce the desired overall magnification, which leads to a need to rapidly produce tube lenses with low expense and diffraction-limited performance – particularly when prototyping different configurations. Tube lenses can be formed using a pair of stock achromatic doublets, which provides the benefits of a simple design that can be purchased rapidly. However, selecting appropriate pairs of achromatic doublets from stock optics is a time-consuming process, as many combinations can be considered. Here, we present two software packages (Catalogue Generator and Doublet Selector) developed in MATLAB that uses the application programming interface (ZOS-API) to the Zemax OpticStudio optical design software to realise an automatic search of stock achromatic doublets to produce microscope tube lenses with a specified focal length, entrance pupil diameter and maximum design field angle. An algorithm to optimise principal plane positions in versions of OpticStudio before 20.2 was also introduced to enable the use of older software versions.