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First Order Optical System Design

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First Order Optical System Design

This course is part of Optical Engineering Specialization

Instructor: Robert McLeod

24,983 already enrolled

Included with

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5 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

342 reviews

Advanced level

Designed for those already in the industry

Flexible schedule

2 weeks at 10 hours a week

Learn at your own pace

86%

Most learners liked this course

5 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

342 reviews

Advanced level

Designed for those already in the industry

Flexible schedule

2 weeks at 10 hours a week

Learn at your own pace

86%

Most learners liked this course

What you'll learn

be able to design, to first order, such optical systems with simple mathematical and graphical techniques

Skills you'll gain

Tools you'll learn

Details to know

Shareable certificate

Add to your LinkedIn profile

Assessments

13 assignments

Taught in English

91%

of learners achieved a positive career outcome

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Build your subject-matter expertise

This course is part of the Optical Engineering Specialization

When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.

Learn new concepts from industry experts
Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
Earn a shareable career certificate

There are 5 modules in this course

This course can also be taken for academic credit as ECEA 5600, part of CU Boulder’s Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree.

Optical instruments are how we see the world, from corrective eyewear to medical endoscopes to cell phone cameras to orbiting telescopes. When you finish this course, you will be able to design, to first order, such optical systems with simple mathematical and graphical techniques. This first order design will allow you to develop the foundation needed to begin all optical design as well as the intuition needed to quickly address the feasibility of complicated designs during brainstorming meetings. You will learn how to enter these designs into an industry-standard design tool, OpticStudio by Zemax, to analyze and improve performance with powerful automatic optimization methods.

Module details

This module introduces rays, which we use to describe the motion of light through air and materials. The course overview describes the goals of this course and gives tips on how to make the best use of the course materials to be successful. The lectures introduce the material. The in-video questions, lab demonstrations, PhET interactive demonstration, practice problems, and homework assignment allow you to get actively involved in learning the material.

What's included

9 videos5 readings3 assignments4 discussion prompts

9 videosTotal 49 minutes

Introduction to the Course4 minutes
Introduction to Geometrical Optics4 minutes
What are rays?12 minutes
Pinhole Camera5 minutes
Rays in OpticStudio3 minutes
Snells Laws7 minutes
Fermat's Principle4 minutes
Snell's Laws in the Laboratory5 minutes
PhET Hands-On Practice5 minutes

5 readingsTotal 41 minutes

Course Updates and Accessibility Support1 minute
Non-Credit Students: Welcome and Where to Find Help10 minutes
Course Overview10 minutes
Tools and Resources10 minutes
Getting Started with OpticStudio or OSLO10 minutes

3 assignmentsTotal 160 minutes

Rays and Snell's Laws120 minutes
Snell's Law Practice Problem20 minutes
Practice problems20 minutes

4 discussion promptsTotal 40 minutes

MATLAB Questions and Concerns10 minutes
Goals for the course10 minutes
Introduce Yourself10 minutes
PhET Hands-On Virtual Laboratory Discussion Prompt10 minutes

In this module, you will learn how to enter the description of an optical system into OpticStudio, analyze the performance of that system using various calculations and plots, and finally optimize that design by defining a merit function and search variables.

What's included

7 videos5 readings1 assignment1 discussion prompt

7 videosTotal 70 minutes

Introduction to OpticStudio5 minutes
System Explorer and the Lens Data Editor6 minutes
Entering a Lens9 minutes
Analyzing a Lens5 minutes
The Lens Catalog18 minutes
Configurations6 minutes
Optimization20 minutes

5 readingsTotal 45 minutes

Introduction5 minutes
Getting started with designing a lens in OpticStudio10 minutes
Setting up your lens in OpticStudio10 minutes
Define multiple inputs to your lens using OpticStudio10 minutes
Analyze the performance of your lens10 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 30 minutes

Design of a lens with OpticStudio30 minutes

1 discussion promptTotal 10 minutes

OpticStudio and OSLO Lens Design10 minutes

This module applies Snell's Laws to the curved interfaces of lenses and mirrors. You will learn the graphical and mathematical tools you need to calculate image size and location for thin lens and mirror systems. This foundation is essential to build more complex optical systems.

What's included

12 videos1 reading3 assignments1 discussion prompt

12 videosTotal 96 minutes

Jargon and Sign Convention7 minutes
Example of Sign Convention1 minute
Graphical Ray Tracing14 minutes
Virtual Objects and Images9 minutes
PhET Lens Practice10 minutes
Positive and Negative Lens Laboratory Demonstration7 minutes
Thin Lens Equations16 minutes
Imaging with Mirrors9 minutes
Single Lens Imaging Example8 minutes
Mirror Laboratory Demonstration5 minutes
Lenses vs. Mirrors2 minutes
Paraxial Analysis in OpticStudio7 minutes

1 readingTotal 10 minutes

Practice ray tracing10 minutes

3 assignmentsTotal 150 minutes

Ray Tracing and Lens Analysis120 minutes
Practice problem10 minutes
Practice Questions20 minutes

1 discussion promptTotal 30 minutes

Microscope Design in OpticStudio or OSLO30 minutes

This module extends the analysis of the previous module to include the effects of real, thick lenses. You will learn how to input this factor into your optical system analysis and design.

What's included

8 videos2 readings3 assignments1 discussion prompt

8 videosTotal 59 minutes

Optical Path Length of a Paraxial Lens8 minutes
Power of a Single Curved Surface5 minutes
Lens Maker's Equation6 minutes
Power of Curved Mirrors8 minutes
Two Lens System4 minutes
Design with Thick Optics7 minutes
Applying Thick Optics Concepts12 minutes
Thick Lens Application9 minutes

2 readingsTotal 20 minutes

Extension of thick lenses10 minutes
Practice10 minutes

3 assignmentsTotal 170 minutes

Thick Optics120 minutes
OpticStudio/OSLO practice20 minutes
Thick Optics Practice Problems30 minutes

1 discussion promptTotal 60 minutes

Thick Optics in OpticStudio60 minutes

For multiple element optical systems, the mathematical tools introduced in this module will make analysis faster and more efficient. In this module, you will learn how to cascade multiple lens systems using matrix multiplication.

What's included

10 videos3 readings3 assignments

10 videosTotal 65 minutes

Tabular first-order ray tracing7 minutes
Example of Tabular First-Order Ray Tracing8 minutes
Another Example of First-Order Tabular Ray Tracing6 minutes
Symbolic Tabular First-Order Ray Tracing7 minutes
First-order ray tracing with ABCD matrices7 minutes
Example of ABCD matrices4 minutes
Properties of the Conjugate Matrix6 minutes
The Form of the Conjugate Matrix7 minutes
Relating the Conjugate to the System Matrix4 minutes
Properties of the 2 Lens System10 minutes

3 readingsTotal 55 minutes

Introduction5 minutes
Practice on your own30 minutes
Background on matrices20 minutes

3 assignmentsTotal 170 minutes

yu Tracer and ABCD Matrices120 minutes
OpticStudio/OSLO practice30 minutes
yu Tracer & ABCD Matrix Practice20 minutes

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Build toward a degree

This course is part of the following degree program(s) offered by University of Colorado Boulder. If you are admitted and enroll, your completed coursework may count toward your degree learning and your progress can transfer with you.¹

Instructor

Instructor ratings

(130 ratings)

Robert McLeod

University of Colorado Boulder

3 Courses27,638 learners

Offered by

University of Colorado Boulder

Learner reviews

5 stars
60.81%
4 stars
22.80%
3 stars
8.47%
2 stars
3.50%
1 star
4.38%

Showing 3 of 342

Reviewed on Apr 3, 2020

Wonderful course! I have learned a lot. This course not only covers the knowledge but also the actual approach to design a working optical system.

Reviewed on Apr 23, 2022

Excellent content and instructor, but, resources for this online course are a bit limited. Getting the OpticStudio software was a challenge.

Reviewed on Aug 8, 2022

I enjoyed very much this course! It gives a detailed (yet understandable for a broader audience) introduction to several methodologies to understand optical systems, mostly lenses, and their design.

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