Automated imaging performance balance of complicated imaging optical systems based on out-loop and performance change ratio

In the later stages of imaging optical system design, balancing the imaging performance across the full field-of-view is a major task, as the image performance over the entire image plane may vary significantly, and the performance at some field points may be very low and cannot achieve the design goal. A typical method for imaging performance balance is to adjust the optimization weights of sample field points in a repeating manner. However, as common optical design software cannot automatically adjust the weight values, the performance balance is done by the designers and the process may be very tedious and time-consuming. In this paper, we introduce an automated imaging performance balance method of complicated imaging optical systems. An out loop is introduced to automatically calculate and adjust the optimization weight of each field point based on its imaging performance after each iteration cycle. In addition, the weight is regulated by an extra factor which is calculated based on the performance change ratio of each field after the previous iteration step, in order to accelerate convergence. After a certain number of cycles, the imaging performance of the system is balanced. Human involvement is reduced to a minimum. The proposed method can be further integrated into commercial optical design software in the future.