Research and development efforts to improve the performance of telecentric lens design for large-format cameras are driven by the ever-increasing deployment of these types of systems into the industrial imaging arena. These lens designs typically have stringent requirements for contrast and resolution (>30% at 100lp/mm) across large sensor sizes (up to 90mm) while maintaining both object- and image-space telecentricity (0.1° object-space, 0.2° image-space). This paper explores various characteristics related to large-format telecentric lens designs and performance. In particular, details around advantages of afocal finite-conjugate imaging, mathematic expression for chromatic telecentricity, and desensitization of working distance variance are discussed with reference to geometric optics and aberration theory. Improvement of chromatic telecentricity and relief of requirement on image-distance accuracy are shown with graphics and MTF plots. Product parameter / performance data is provided as an example.

Date Published: 18 September 2007
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 6667, Current Developments in Lens Design and Optical Engineering VIII, 666705 (18 September 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.734447

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)