This tool measures the effect of system perturbations on longitudinal (axial) aberrations. It reports nominal axial aberration values and shows how the aberration evolves when optical elements move, temperature changes, or glass materials vary. The results support tolerancing on focus position, depth-of-focus stability, and athermalization strategies when using different glass combinations or environmental conditions.
Key features:
Comprehensive Sensitivity Evaluation: Calculates aberration sensitivity (spherical aberration, coma, astigmatism, field curvature, distortion, lateral and longitudinal aberrations) under mechanical perturbations (shifts/tilts), as well as environmental and material-property variations.
Thermal Sensitivity Testing: Allows users to define a temperature range for sensitivity analysis — accounting for temperature-dependent refractive index changes (thermo-optic effects), thermal expansion, and their impact on aberrations, focus shift, and system performance. This helps predict behavior under real operating conditions (e.g. environmental temperature cycles, thermal stress, athermalization trade-offs).
Material Glass-Index Variation: Enables defining a glass index range (or substituting glass materials) to evaluate how refractive index changes — due to different glass types or manufacturing tolerances — affect aberrations and overall optical performance. This is particularly useful for design optimization, glass substitution, or tolerance studies.
Automated Element Detection & Adjustment: Automatically detects and isolates optical elements in your design, then allows dynamic shift and tilt adjustments for sensitivity studies.
Nominal & Dynamic Aberration Comparison: Provides baseline aberration data and tracks changes with applied perturbations, enabling quick identification of sensitivity-critical elements.
Graphical Visualization & Data Export: Generates intuitive plots showing how aberrations evolve with element displacement; all results saved into structured text/image files (MATLAB, JPEG/PNG/TIFF, vector graphics, etc.) for further analysis or documentation.
Flexible Workflow Integration: Results can be summarized directly in the MATLAB command window for quick inspection, and the tool works as a standalone application or as an interactive extension (upon request).
With this tool, optical engineers and designers can explore how small mechanical tolerances — shifts or tilts of elements — affect system aberrations, enabling better-informed design choices and enhanced robustness of optical systems.
Looking for additional functionality? We offer free customization. Whether you need specific plots, analysis features, or other enhancements, we’ll tailor this tool to your requirements - at no extra development cost.
