Optical Solutions Newsletter

"What was the motivation for developing Glass Expert?"

CODE V can optimize glass types by treating the index and Abbe values as continuous variables. However, the challenge lies in converting these "fictitious" glasses into real glass types. The difficulty is that other properties of optical glasses (like secondary dispersion, CTE, and dn/dT value) do not vary continuously with index and Abbe. The motivation for developing Glass Expert was to put into software the experience we have for selecting glasses that solve the problem of primary color and simultaneously solving secondary color and other optical design challenges. Even experienced designers benefit from Glass Expert because the process is automated and runs much faster than doing it “by hand.”

"How were these challenges addressed before Glass Expert?"

Previously, it was possible to vary the glasses in a continuous manner and then select the real glass that most closely matched the index and Abbe values of the "fictitious" glass.   Such solutions were usually sub-optimal because many properties of optical glass (including the secondary color properties, transmission, weight, and thermal behavior) do not vary continuously with index and Abbe value.  Therefore, it was necessary to rely on the experience of optical design engineers to select glasses that could solve the optical design challenges. With Glass Expert, these issues are taken into account automatically, and solutions are found that are better, in less time, and without relying on an expert user.

"What specific design challenges does Glass Expert solve that prior solutions don't?"

Our Engineering Services group has extensive experience in making glass choices, designing complex optical systems, and studying the properties of optical glass. This expertise enabled us to develop an algorithm that makes intelligent choices about which glasses to use, addressing challenges that previous methods could not.

"Can you share an anecdote where Glass Expert solved a complex design problem?"

Soon after its implementation, Glass Expert was used by a well-known optical design house to design a very wide-angle (nearly fisheye) lens that needed to be extremely well-corrected for lateral color. Initially, we anticipated a long process, but overnight, Glass Expert found a solution that met all the design goals. The customer was thrilled and began revising the design goals upward to see how much better the design could be made.

"How has Glass Expert changed the way you approach your design workflow?"

The most immediate change is that Glass Expert can accomplish in a few hours what a highly experienced designer could achieve in a week or more of hard work. Although it was conceived as a tool for improving the secondary color of an optical system, we have also found that, when used with Multiple Environmental Coupling (MECo), Glass Expert excels at athermalizing optical systems as well.