Invited Paper

Dewen Chenga, b, Yongtian Wanga* and Hong Huab a Department of Optoelectronic Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China b College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721, USA
ABSTRACT
The general Wassermann-Wolf differential equations were derived to design an off-axis free form surface (FFS) prism head mounted display (HMD) system. A FFS prism HMD system with 20 degree, 8mm exit pupil and 15mm-effective focal length was designed and the image qualities were analyzed. Keyword: optical design, free form surface, Wassermann Wolf equations, head-mounted display, CODE V

Free form optical system design with differential equations

1. INTRODUCTION
Free form surfaces such as anamorphic or XY-polynomial surfaces offer substantial advantages over conventional rotationally symmetric surfaces by providing additional degrees of freedom in minimizing wavefront errors. In recent years, they have been explored for a wide range of applications, such as lightweight head-mounted displays (HMDs) and various reflective imaging systems [1, 2]. There are several ways to design optical system with differential equations. Hicks proposed three direct ways to design a free form optical system. The shape of the mirror was determined by the relationship between the incident rays and the exit rays [3]. Wassermann and Wolf introduced the W-W method for the design of two aspheric surfaces for any given centered system to achieve exact aplanatism under Abbe sine condition [4]. Knapp improved the W-W methods so that it could be applied in most general optical systems such as those without rotation symmetry, but the origins of the two consecutive aspheric surfaces must remain on the optical axis and no tilt or decenter is allowed [5]. In this paper, further improvement to the formulae is made so that the two consecutive aspheric or free form surfaces can be decentered or tilted with respect to the optical axis. The following of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 discusses the principle of the system design. The calculation method and the simulation results are discussed in section 3.

2. METHODOLOGY.
2.1 Differential equation for the design of one reflective surface Consider one ray which intersects with the reflecting surface at a certain point. If the direction vectors of the incident and reflected rays are determined, the normal on the intersection point of the surface can be calculated. A ray can be defined by its propagation direction vector and a single point on the ray in space. Denoting the unit propagation vector of the r r incident ray by Rin and that of the reflected ray by Rout , the surface normal at the intersection point can be obtained by Eq. r (1). All vectors in this paper are normalized. The direction of Rin is defined towards the optical surface, and the direction r of Rout is leaving the optical surface, as shown in Fig. 1. XOY is the tangent plane of the reflecting surface at its origin, O. The skew ray intersects the tangent plane at (hx, hy).

*wyt@bit.edu.cn
Optical Design and Testing IV, edited by Yongtian Wang, Julie Bentley, Chunlei Du, Kimio Tatsuno, Hendrik P. Urbach, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7849, 78490Q 2010 SPIE CCC code: 0277-786X/10/$18 doi: 10.1117/12.869690 Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7849 78490Q-1
Downloaded from SPIE Digital Library on 23 Sep 2011 to 219.223.172.226. Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms

r Rout

i i

Y
hx
hy
O

r N
r Rin

( x, y , z )

Fig. 1. Sketch map for designing a freeform reflective surface

r r r N = ( Rout Rin ) / 2

(1)

The reflecting surface can be represented in a parametric form. The coordinates of a point on the surface are expressed as r an explicit function of an independent parameter, namely x=x(t), y=y(t), z=z(t). The tangent of the surface at this point can be written as (dx/dt, dy/dt, dz/dt). The surface normal is perpendicular to the surface tangent as described by:

r r N = 0
By combining Eq. (1) and Eq. (2), we obtain

(2)

r r r ( Rout Rin ) = 0 (3) r r Rin can be represented as the direction cosine of the ray (cos ix , cos iy , cos iz ) , and so can Rout (cos ox , cos oy , cos oz ) .
By expanding Eq. (3), we have

dz dt

(cos ox cos ix ) (cos oz cos iz )

dx dt

(cos oy cos iy ) (cos oz cos iz )

dy dt

(4)

The x and y coordinates of the incident ray on the reflecting surface can be expressed in terms of the ray cosine (cos ix , cos iy , cos iz ) and the coordinates (hx, hy) of the incident ray on the tangent plane(XOY):

x = hx + z

cos ix cos iz

, y = hy + z

cos iy cos iz

(5)

By combining Eq. (4) and (5), we can obtain:

dz dt

A1

d (tan iy / tan iz ) d (tan ix / tan iz ) dhy dhx + z + z ) + B1 dt dt dt dt 1 A tan / tan -B tan / tan 1 1 ix iz iy iz

(6)

where, A1 =

cos ox cos cos oz cos

ix

, B1 =

cos oy cos cos oz cos

iy

iz

iz

2.2 Design of two consecutive reflecting free form surfaces We are going to design FFS prism head mounted display system as shown in Fig. 2. The system is only symmetric about the YOZ plane. All rotations exists around the x axis and all decenters exist in the YOZ plane. Fig. 3 is a 2D layout of the system showing the cross section on YOZ plane. The origin of the global coordinates of the system locates at the center

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7849 78490Q-2

Downloaded from SPIE Digital Library on 23 Sep 2011 to 219.223.172.226. Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms

of the stop surface. The system consists of three surfaces. The first and third surface are refractive, the second surface is reflective. It is simple to find the relations between the intersection point and ray directional vector from Fig. 3. The superscript l means that the parameter is in the surface local coordinates, the superscript g shows that the parameter is in the system global coordinates. Similarly with Eq. (5), the relations can be described as follows in the surface local coordinate:

x1 = hx1 + z1

l l cos iy cos ix 1 1 y = h + z , 1 1 y1 l l cos iz1 cos iz1

(7)

The projections of the ray path length R along X, Y, Z-axes and the direction cosines of the ray after reflection by surface 1 can be expressed as follows, respectively[5]:
2 Rx = x 2g x1g , Rz = z 2g z1g , Ry = y 2g y1g , R 2 = Rx2 + Ry + Rz2

g cos xR =

R Rx R g g , cos yR = y , cos zR = z R R R
0 cos1 -sin1 0 x1 0 l sin1 y1 + Yc1 , l Z cos1 z1 c1
l g x2 1 g y2 = 0 z g 0 2

(8)

x1g 1 g where, y1 = 0 z g 0 1
tilt angle of surface 2.

0 cos 2 -sin 2

0 x2 0 y l + Y sin 2 2 c2 l cos 2 z2 Zc2

l

(0, Yc1 , Z c1 ) is the origin of surface 1, (0, Yc 2 , Z c 2 ) is the origin of surface 2, 1 is the tilt angle of surface 1 and 2 is the

i
cos( ox ), cos( oy ), cos( oz )

n 3

2
0

P2

1
2
P 1

Yc 2
o
Y
X

Yc1

Zc 2

cos(ix ), cos(iy ), cos( iz )

Z c1

n'

Fig. 2. 3D layout of the FFS optical system.

Fig. 3. 2D layout of the FFS optical system

Considering the surfaces are decentered and tilted, each ray is firstly traced to find the ray direction vector and its intersection point with the tangent plane before solving the differential equations mentioned above. The direction cosines of the ray and the coordinates of the intersection point applied to the equation should be in the local coordinates of the surface. By substituting the incident and reflected ray vectors into Eq. (6), we have

dz1 dt

A1 =

dhx1 dt

+ z1

l l l l dhy1 d (tan iy d (tan ix / tan iz 1 / tan iz1 ) 1 1) ) + B1 + z1 dt dt dt

l l l l 1 A1 (tan ix1 / tan iz1 )-B1 (tan iy1 / tan iz1 )

(9)

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7849 78490Q-3

Downloaded from SPIE Digital Library on 23 Sep 2011 to 219.223.172.226. Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms

where A1 =

cos cos cos cos

l1 xR l1 zR

l ix1 l iz 1

, B1 =

cos cos iy1

l1 yR l l1 l cos zR cos iz 1

l1 g cos xR 1 0 0 cos xR l1 g , cos yR = 0 cos1 -sin1 cos yR cos l 1 g 0 sin1 cos1 cos zR zR

Similarly, we can obtain the following equation for surface 2:

l l l l dhy 2 d (tan oy / tan oz ) dhx 2 d (tan ox / tan oz ) 2 2 2 2 + z2 + z2 A2 ) + B2 dt dt dt dz2 dt = l l l l dt 1 A (tan / tan )-B (tan / tan ) ox 2 oz 2 oy 2 oz 2 2 2
l2 g cos xR 1 0 0 cos xR cos cos cos l2 g = 0 cos 2 -sin 2 cos yR ,B2 = , cos yR l l2 cos cos oz 2 cos zR cos l 2 g 0 sin 2 cos 2 cos zR zR

(10)

where A 2 =

cos cos

l ox 2 l oz 2

l2 xR l2 zR

l oy 2

l2 yR

The vector for the reflected ray of surface 1 is also the vector for the incident ray of surface 2. By solving Eqs. (9) and (10) together with (7) and (8), we can achieve two profiles and surface normals on each intersection point on surfaces 1 and 2 simultaneously. 2.3 Requirements and assumptions Besides these differential equations, the relations between the rays at the incident and exit sides of the FFS prism are required. The incident and exit rays used to calculate the system need to meet the conditions of Eqs. (11) and (12).

Fig. 4. Relations between the incident and exit rays

Sine condition:

sin U = h / f '
y ' = f ' tan

(11) (12)

U is the angle between a given ray and the chief ray of the same field of the given field in the image plane, h is the ray height in the aperture plane. The chief ray of the off-axis field may not be perpendicular to the image plane.

3. SIMULATION AND RESULT ANALYSIS

Each ray has two intersections with surface 2. The ray is firstly reflected by this surface and is transmitted the second time through surface 0. Surfaces 0 and 2 should be the same surface at last. A spherical surface was used to represent the initial surface shape for surface 0, and the surface 3 facing the microdisplay was initialized as a plane surface. The surface 3 was then converted to a free form surface for further optimization after the surfaces 0/2 and 1 were well designed. The initial structure data including surface origins and tilts were adapted from a previous design. The exit pupil diameter of the HMD system is 8mm, and the effective focal length is 15mm. We solved the differential equations derived in section 2 for on axis field. Fig. 5 illustrates the layout of the designed system. Fig. 6 shows MTF plots of the system fitted by XY polynomial surface.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7849 78490Q-4

Downloaded from SPIE Digital Library on 23 Sep 2011 to 219.223.172.226. Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms

Fig. 5. Layout of the system with rays from the axial field

Fig. 6. MTF plot of the system

From Fig. 6 the image quality of the zero field system solved by the improved W-W method approaches the diffraction limit. We continued to solve the equations for different fields. Several different systems with small field of view have been designed. They were plotted on the same figure (Fig. 7) by the zoom option in CODEV [6]. The Fig. 8 shows the MTF curves for different fields evaluated with the exit pupil of 8mm. In the end, we have to integrate separated systems designed at different fields, as shown in Fig. 7, into a monolithic system, as shown in Fig. 9. A surface fitting procedure based on least square method has been developed to form the surface pieces into a continuous surface. The image quality of the integrated system would decrease due to the differences among the surface profiles. We simply optimized it in CODEV and obtained a system, as shown in Fig. 10, with an image quality approaching the individual systems with single field described in Fig. 7.

Fig. 7. Layout composes of 7 zooms single field system.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7849 78490Q-5

Downloaded from SPIE Digital Library on 23 Sep 2011 to 219.223.172.226. Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms

Modulation for each zoo

cdw
1.0

29-Jul-08

Diffration Limit x-zoo 1 x-zoo 2 x-zoo 3 x-zoo 4 x-zoo 5 x-zoo 6 x-zoo 7 y-zoo 1 y-zoo 2 y-zoo 3 y-zoo 4 y-zoo 5 y-zoo 6 y-zoo 7

0.9

0.8

0.7

Modulation

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0 0.

3.

6.

9.

12.

15.

18.

21.

24.

27.

30.

LP/MM

Fig. 8. MTF plots of individual systems evaluated with the exit pupil of 8mm.

Fig. 9. Layout of the integrated system based on Fig.7.

Modulation for each field
cdw
1.0
Diffration Limit x- -9 x- -6 x- -3 x- 0 x- 3 x- 6 x- 9 y- -9 y- -6 y- -3 y- 0 y- 3 y- 6 y- 9

01-Aug-08

0.9

0.8

0.7

Modulation

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0 0.

3.

6.

9.

12.

15.

18.

21.

24.

27.

30.

LP/MM

Fig. 10. MTF plot of the integrated system evaluated with the exit pupil of 8mm.

We designed a FFS HMD system with 20-diagonal field of view, 8mm exit pupil, 18mm eye relief and 15mm effective focal length based on the integrated system. Surface 3 was changed to a free form surface for further optimization. Fig.11 shows the system layout and Fig.12 shows the distortion of the system, which is less than 1.5% all over the field. This is one advantage of designing a free form optical system by solving the differential equations. Fig. 13 shows the MTF plots evaluated with an exit pupil of 8mm, while Fig. 14 shows the MTF plots evaluated at an exit pupil of 3mm. The MTF values of all fields are above 0.3 at 30lp/mm.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7849 78490Q-6

Downloaded from SPIE Digital Library on 23 Sep 2011 to 219.223.172.226. Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms

4.55

MM

EPD=8mm;EFL=15mm;16*12 degree

Scale:

5.50

cdw

01-Aug-08

Fig.11. Layout of the FFS system with three free-form surfaces

Fig. 12. Distortion of the FFS system.

EPD=8mm;EFL=15mm;16* 12 degree
DIFFRACTION MTF cdw
1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7
Y X Y X Y X Y X Y X

01-Aug-08

DIFFRACTION LIMIT (0.000,0.000) DEG (0.000,3.000) DEG (0.000,-3.00) DEG (0.000,6.000) DEG (0.000,-6.00) DEG

WAVELENGTH 656.3 NM 587.6 NM 546.1 NM 486.1 NM

WEIGHT 1 2 1 1

EPD=8mm;EFL=15mm;16* 12 degree
DIFFRACTION MTF cdw
1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7

DIFFRACTION LIMIT
Y X Y X Y X

(8.000,6.000) DEG (8.000,-6.00) DEG (8.000,0.000) DEG

01-Aug-08

WAVELENGTH 656.3 NM 587.6 NM 546.1 NM 486.1 NM

WEIGHT 1 2 1 1

DEFOCUSING 0.00000
Y X

DEFOCUSING 0.00000
Y X

M O 0.6 D U L A 0.5 T I O 0.4 N

0.3 0.2 0.1

M O 0.6 D U L A 0.5 T I O 0.4 N

0.3 0.2 0.1

2.4

4.8

7.2

9.6

12.0

14.4

16.8

19.2

21.6

24.0

26.4

28.8

2.4

4.8

7.2

9.6

12.0

14.4

16.8

19.2

21.6

24.0

26.4

28.8

SPATIAL FREQUENCY (CYCLES/MM)

SPATIAL FREQUENCY (CYCLES/MM)

Fig. 13. MTF plots evaluated with the exit pupil diameter of 8mm.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7849 78490Q-7

Downloaded from SPIE Digital Library on 23 Sep 2011 to 219.223.172.226. Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms

EPD=8mm;EFL=15mm;16* 12 degree
DIFFRACTION MTF cdw
1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7

01-Aug-08

Y X Y X Y X Y X Y X

DIFFRACTION LIMIT (0.000,0.000) DEG (0.000,3.000) DEG (0.000,-3.00) DEG (0.000,6.000) DEG (0.000,-6.00) DEG

WAVELENGTH 656.3 NM 587.6 NM 546.1 NM 486.1 NM

WEIGHT 1 2 1 1

EPD=8mm;EFL=15mm;16* 12 degree
DIFFRACTION MTF cdw
1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7

DIFFRACTION LIMIT
Y X Y X Y X

(8.000,6.000) DEG (8.000,-6.00) DEG (8.000,0.000) DEG

01-Aug-08

WAVELENGTH 656.3 NM 587.6 NM 546.1 NM 486.1 NM

WEIGHT 1 2 1 1

DEFOCUSING 0.00000

DEFOCUSING 0.00000

Y X

Y X

M O 0.6 D U L 0.5 A T I O 0.4 N

0.3 0.2 0.1

M O 0.6 D U L 0.5 A T I O 0.4 N

0.3 0.2 0.1

2.4

4.8

7.2

9.6

12.0

14.4

16.8

19.2

21.6

24.0

26.4

28.8

2.4

4.8

7.2

9.6

12.0

14.4

16.8

19.2

21.6

24.0

26.4

28.8

SPATIAL FREQUENCY (CYCLES/MM)

SPATIAL FREQUENCY (CYCLES/MM)

Fig. 14. MTF plots evaluated with the exit pupil diameter of 3mm.

4. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

General differential equations were derived for designing an off-axis optical system which contains two reflecting free form surfaces. A FFS prism HMD system with 20 degree, 8mm exit pupil and 15mm-effective focal length was designed and the image qualities were analyzed. There is a limitation in the method proposed in section 2. The method can only be applied to optimize optical systems with small fields. We will try to find the feasibility to achieve a wide angle optical system by dividing it into several small field systems, and tiling the discrete systems into a system with large field of view.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work is partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (60827003), Hi-Tech Research and Development Program of China (2009AA01Z308, 2006AA02Z4E5), the Innovation Team Development Program of the Chinese Ministry of Education (IRT0606), and partially funded by the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (06-44446).We would like to thank Sheng Liu for his helpful inputs and stimulating discussions.

REFERENCE
[1] K. Garrard, Design tools for free form optics, Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5874, 58740A (2005). [2] J. M. Rodgers and K. Thompson, Benefits of free form mirror surfaces in optical design, Proceeding of the ASPE 2004 Winter Topical Meeting on Free form Optics, 31, 18-22 (2004). [3] R. A. Hicks, Direct methods for free form surface design, Proc. SPIE, Vol. 6668, 666802 (2007). [4] G. D. Wassermann and E. Wolf, On the theory of aplanatic aspheric systems Proc. Phys. Soc. B 62 2-8 (1949). [5] D. J. Knapp, Conformal optical design, Ph.D. Dissertation, College of Optical Sciences, the University of Arizona (2002). [6] CODE V, Reference Manual, Optical Research Associates (2007).

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7849 78490Q-8

Downloaded from SPIE Digital Library on 23 Sep 2011 to 219.223.172.226. Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms