Saddle-point construction (SPC) is a new method to insert lenses into an existing design. With SPC, by inserting and extracting lenses new system shapes can be obtained very rapidly, and we believe that, if added to the optical designer's arsenal, this new tool can significantly increase design productivity in certain situations. Despite the fact that the theory behind SPC contains mathematical concepts that are still unfamiliar to many optical designers, the practical implementation of the method is actually very easy and the method can be fully integrated with all other traditional design tools. In this work we will illustrate the use of SPC with examples that are very simple and illustrate the essence of the method. The method can be used essentially in the same way even for very complex systems with a large number of variables, in situations where other methods for obtaining new system shapes do not work so well.

Date Published: 18 September 2007
PDF: 13 pages
Proc. SPIE 6667, Current Developments in Lens Design and Optical Engineering VIII, 666708 (18 September 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.732477

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6667:
Current Developments in Lens Design and Optical Engineering VIII
Pantazis Z. Mouroulis; Warren J. Smith; R. Barry Johnson, Editor(s)