Zemax is a company that sells optical design software. OpticStudio is its flagship product and a commonly used

optical design Optical lens design is the process of designing a lens to meet a set of performance requirements and constraints, including cost and manufacturing limitations. Parameters include surface profile types (spherical, aspheric, holographic, diffractive, ...

program Program, programme, programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program management, the process of managing several related projects * Time management * Program, a part of planning Arts and entertainment Audio * Progra ...

for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. It is used for the design and analysis of both imaging and illumination systems.

History

OpticStudio, then called Zemax, was originally written by Ken Moore and was the first optical design program specifically written for Microsoft Windows. It became commercially available in 1990. The first version was called Max, named after the programmer's dog. The name was later changed to Zemax due to a trademark conflict. The software was rebranded as OpticStudio in 2016. The program was originally sold by Focus Software, which later became Zemax Development Corp. The latter merged with Radiant Imaging in 2011 to form Radiant Zemax. In 2014 Radiant sold Zemax to

Arlington Capital Partners Arlington Capital Partners is a Washington, DC based private equity firm focusing on leveraged buyout and recapitalization investments in middle market companies. Started in 1999, the firm manages $4.0 billion of committed capital out of five i ...

, which named the company Zemax, LLC. Arlington Capital Partners sold Zemax to EQT June 26, 2018. On 31 August 2021, it was announced Ansys acquired the company.

Features and applications

OpticStudio is an

program that is used to design and analyze imaging systems such as

camera lens A camera lens (also known as photographic lens or photographic objective) is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to make images of objects either on photographic film or on other media capab ...

es, as well as illumination systems. It works by ray tracing—modelling the propagation of

rays Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (gra ...

through an optical system. It can model the effect of optical elements such as

simple lens In optics, a simple lens or singlet lens is a lens consisting of a single simple element. Typical examples include a magnifying glass or a lens in a pair of simple reading glasses. Simple lenses are prone to aberrations, especially chromatic aberr ...

es,

aspheric lens An aspheric lens or asphere (often labeled ''ASPH'' on eye pieces) is a lens whose surface profiles are not portions of a sphere or cylinder. In photography, a lens assembly that includes an aspheric element is often called an aspherical lens. T ...

es,

gradient-index lens Gradient-index (GRIN) optics is the branch of optics covering optical effects produced by a gradient of the refractive index of a material. Such gradual variation can be used to produce lenses with flat surfaces, or lenses that do not have the ab ...

es,

mirror A mirror or looking glass is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...

s, and

diffractive optical element Diffraction is defined as the interference or bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/aperture. The diffracting object or aperture effectively becomes a s ...

s, and can produce standard analysis diagrams such as spot diagrams and ray-fan plots. OpticStudio can also model the effect of

optical coating An optical coating is one or more thin layers of material deposited on an optical component such as a lens, prism or mirror, which alters the way in which the optic reflects and transmits light. These coatings have become a key technology in th ...

s on the surfaces of components. It includes a library of stock commercial lenses. OpticStudio can perform standard sequential ray tracing through optical elements, non-sequential ray tracing for analysis of

stray light Stray light is light in an optical system, which was not intended in the design. The light may be from the intended source, but follow paths other than intended, or it may be from a source other than the intended source. This light will often set a ...

, and

physical optics In physics, physical optics, or wave optics, is the branch of optics that studies interference, diffraction, polarization, and other phenomena for which the ray approximation of geometric optics is not valid. This usage tends not to include effec ...

beam propagation. It also has tolerancing capability, to allow analysis of the effect of manufacturing defects and assembly errors. The physical optics propagation feature can be used for problems where

diffraction Diffraction is defined as the interference or bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/aperture. The diffracting object or aperture effectively becomes a s ...

is important, including the propagation of

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...

beams and the coupling of light into

single-mode optical fiber In fiber-optic communication, a single-mode optical fiber (SMF), also known as fundamental- or mono-mode, is an optical fiber designed to carry only a single mode of light - the transverse mode. Modes are the possible solutions of the Helmholtz ...

s. OpticStudio's optimization tools can be used to improve an initial lens design by automatically adjusting parameters to maximize performance and reduce aberrations.

References

External links

*{{Official website, www.zemax.com Optical software