Off-Axial Three-Mirror System With Integrated Freeform Mirrors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Off-axial three-mirror systems face limitations in degrees of freedom and difficulty in assembling and aligning separate mirrors, which affect their performance and image quality.
Innovation Solution
The design integrates the primary and tertiary mirrors as a single piece with freeform surfaces, such as XY polynomial or Zernike polynomial surfaces, and an aspherical surface for the secondary mirror, forming a bulk structure to enhance assembly precision and introduce more degrees of freedom, improving imaging performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If separate mirrors are used in the off-axial three-mirror system, then the system can be assembled and aligned, but the degrees of freedom are limited and assembly precision is difficult to achieve
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the primary mirror and tertiary mirror into a single integrated mirror structure. This merging reduces the number of separate components, simplifies the assembly process, and eliminates alignment errors between separate mirrors. The integrated structure provides more degrees of freedom for optimizing optical performance while maintaining manufacturing precision.
2Adaptability or versatility
If spherical mirrors and conicoid mirrors are employed, then the system structure is simple, but the degrees of freedom are limited and imaging performance is not superior
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the surface parameters of the mirrors by employing freeform surfaces with adjustable coefficients (a1-a10) instead of fixed spherical or conicoid shapes. This allows the mirror surfaces to be optimized for specific imaging requirements, providing more degrees of freedom to achieve superior imaging performance including corrected coma, astigmatism, and field curvature.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration enhances the system's performance and image quality by increasing degrees of freedom and simplifying the assembly process, achieving modulation transfer functions close to the diffraction limit and supporting large or wide fields of view.
Implementation Method 1
an off-axial three-mirror system includes a primary mirror, a secondary mirror, and a tertiary mirror
Data Source
AI summary
An off-axial three-mirror system includes a primary mirror, a secondary mirror, a tertiary mirror, and an image sensor. The secondary mirror is located on a reflective optical path of the primary mirror. The tertiary mirror is located on a reflective optical path of the secondary mirror. The image sensor is located on a reflecting optical path of the tertiary mirror. The primary mirror and the tertiary mirror are formed as one piece. The surface type of both the primary mirror and the tertiary mirror is a freeform surface.