Title

Using Molded Chalcogenide Glass Technology To Reduce Cost In A Compact Wide-Angle Thermal Imaging Lens

Keywords

Athermal design; Infrared lens design; Molded chalcogenide optics; Thermal imaging; Wide-angle lenses

Abstract

This paper presents the design, analysis, and fabrication of a telecentric 171.3 thermal imaging lens. The 14.8 mm wideangle lens provides a 62° diagonal field-of-view, and was designed to operate over the 8-14 urn infrared spectral band. Focus can be manually adjusted from 0.5 m to infinity, maintaining constant image quality over the entire range. A compact air-spaced doublet design limits the overall length to 34 mm and the maximum diameter to 28 mm. Lens materials were chosen to minimize chromatic aberrations, reduce cost, and fit within the molded chalcogenide glass manufacturing capabilities. Combining a molded aspheric chalcogenide lens with a polished spherical Germanium lens eliminated the need for a diffractive surface to correct chromatic aberrations, and reduced the fabrication cost. Vignetting was purposely introduced at the extreme fields to compensate for the effects of aberrations on the relative illumination variation across the field-of-view. Athermalization of the lens was achieved mechanically over the entire operating temperature range (- 40 to + 80°C).

Publication Date

8-29-2006

Publication Title

Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

Volume

6206 II

Number of Pages

-

Document Type

Article; Proceedings Paper

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1117/12.667250

Socpus ID

33747702205 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/33747702205

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