The success of the design and construction of modern optical instruments is based in part on the ability to effectively incorporate state-of-the-art optical technologies within budget and project time constraints. Optical CAD programs and wave optics simulation have become indispensable design tools for this task. However, as the design of complex projects evolve, an extraordinarily large amount of resources can be expended just developing and maintaining the design tools and simulations. In addition, when the design requires a collaborative effort, it is generally very difficult for each design team to use the other's tools and simulations. Furthermore, integration is a challenge since progress in optical component manufacturing has made available a large variety of components whose behavior are modeled using different optical physics regimes. The opportunity and technical challenge exist to incorporate the optical design regimes into a single robust comprehensive framework. We will eliminate these problems by developing the next generation optical CAD systems tool that is based on an object-oriented class library. The user interface will be browser-based. The inherent flexibility of the optics class framework prevents the design and simulation tools from consuming too large a share of resources and time. Since it is object oriented, it will eliminate the barriers that prevent specialized tools and simulations from being universally used in collaborative efforts. In addition, the Web interface will allow remote design groups to naturally and transparently share or review input and results.
Potential Commercial Applications:The object-oriented class library approach to constructing optics design tools and optimizers represents the next generation of optics CAD software. The power and flexibility of the class library approach will make the present day software look rigid and cumbersome, and therefore obsolete. The market for optics CAD software is fairly extensive, hence the opportunity for growth by being one of the first to introduce the next generation of optics CAD technology is equally large. In addition, the object-oriented class library approach is a unified framework, since it can easily incorporate wave optics analysis as well as ray optics analysis, diffractive optics as well as refractive optics, and therefore hybrid systems. Hence this approach will widen the optics design tool market. As optics technology progresses, the class library never becomes obsolete, because newly derived classes tailored for the new technology can always be added, without ever needing to change the base classes. In the same sense, a single optical CAD package based on a class library can be used equally well for optical instrument engineering, electro-optics and integrated optics applications, lidar and ladar, holography, and so on.
