Cylindrical Lens Creator
FRED does not currently include a built-in cylindrical lens creator. Cylindrical lenses must be entered either manually surface by surface or by adding a catalog cylindrical lens and adjusting it...
View ArticleRectangular Lenslet Arrays
Lenslet arrays are used in a variety of applications that include beam homogenization. This knowledge base article demonstrates the setup of an imaging lenslet array for creating uniform incoherent...
View ArticleTelescope Model Using OAP’s
This knowledge base article demonstrates modeling of a three mirror 5x afocal telescope system as prescribed in “Modern Lens Design: A Resource Manual” by Warren Smith (McGraw Hill). This article...
View ArticleOptimizing Lens Modules
The Lens Module family of surfaces (Infinite conjugate, finite conjugate, afocal and spherical) provide a convenient mechanism for quickly defining an ideal lens element. If the circumstance arises...
View ArticleComposite Curve Testing
The goal of this knowledge base article is to describe a common occurrence when working with FRED’s composite curves to create custom aperture shapes and to describe a script utility which can help the...
View ArticleCassegrain Telescope Builder
A while ago, I was reading through Joe Geary’s excellent book, “Introduction to Lens Design” 1, and it occurred to me that his first order construction of a Cassegrain telescope could be very easily...
View ArticleAxicon Lens Example
This is a model of a Thorlabs Axicon Lens AX2520-UV which is used in this model to convert a plane wave input beam into a ring profile. The raytrace is performed coherently using FRED’s Gaussian Beam...
View ArticleCompute Distance Between Objects
The attached FRED file contains an embedded script which shows how you can calculate the distance between two objects using the scripting language. The script works by using the TransformPosition...
View ArticleCAD Surface Position and Orientation
When FRED imports a CAD model, all of its surfaces are defined by NURBs, or trimmed versions of those NURBs called Trimmed Parametrics. These parametric surfaces are always defined in the global...
View ArticleImporting Doublets
This article outlines the general process for importing a Cemented Doublet from an optical model, using an Edmund Optics 45089 Achromat as an example (Zemax file used). When FRED imports a doublet,...
View ArticleApplication Example: Color Mixing Lightpipe
Light Emitting Diodes, or LEDs, have surpassed incandescent light sources in recent years for most applications. Benefits of the LED include compact size, high power efficiency, and a long lifespan....
View ArticleApplication Example: Mobile Displays
Mobile devices such as smartphones, e-readers, and watches are becoming ubiquitous in today’s world. Precise optical engineering is required to optimize the performance of mobile features such as the...
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