Design of compact optical systems using multichannel configurations

Compacting devices is an increasingly demanding requirement for many applications in both nonimaging and imaging optics. “Compacting” means here decreasing the volume of the space between the entry and the exit aperture without decreasing the optical performance. For nonimaging optical systems, compact optics is mainly important for reducing cost. Its small volume means less material is needed for mass-production and small size and light weight save cost in transportation. For imaging optical systems, in addition to the mentioned advantages, compact optics increases portability of devices as well, which contributes a lot to wearable display technologies such as Head Mounted Displays (HMD). After reviewing the different techniques to design compact systems, we analyze here the multichannel strategies. These type of designs split the incoming bundle of rays in different sub-bundles that are optically processed (independently) and then recombined in a single outgoing bundle. The optics volume decreases rapidly with the number of sub-bundles. These designs usually need to be combined with freeform optics in order to get optimum performance. © (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.