ZEMAX software now models Edmund Optics lenses

Aug. 6, 2011

Edmund Optics lenses are now included in Radiant ZEMAX ray-tracing optical design software.

Barrington, NJ--Edmund Optics lenses are now included in Radiant ZEMAX (Bellevue, WA) ray-tracing optical design software, which helps optical system engineers complete optical-product designs quickly and efficiently. The new release of the ZEMAX ray-tracing optical-design framework simulates actual system performance for more than 4000 lenses from Edmund Optics' Stock Lens Catalog--which includes aspheric lenses. 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.

The new software capability allows designs to find the right stock components for any application. The availability of Edmund Optics’ Stock Lens Catalog in ZEMAX’s non-sequential mode helps 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; the ZEMAX software makes it easy to design with aspheres and take advantage of the more than one hundred new aspheres recently added by Edmund, such as UV-grade 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 for color correcting visual imaging systems.

In the event that a custom component is needed, ZEMAX helps the designer develop the necessary specifications, including new surface curvature and surface curvature cross-section plots that provide new insight into the behavior of aspheric surfaces and a new SCUR operand that provides control of surface curvature during optimization. The new ZEMAX software release provides expanded multiprocessor support to take advantage of cloud computing and conventional supercomputers, supporting parallel processing with up to 64 CPUs for Monte Carlo simulations with up to 64 rays simultaneously.

SOURCE: Edmund Optics; www.edmundoptics.com/about-us/news-and-events/eoinnewsdisplay.cfm?newsid=346&newstype=3

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About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.