Ahmad - Handbook of Optomechanical Engineering

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Optomechanical engineering is essential for the design of optical systems used in everyday life. There are many textbooks on optics and many textbooks on mechanical engineering, but few textbooks on the combination of optics and mechanics, and there are few universities that teach courses on optomechanical design. Unfortunately, it is impossible to design and build a high-quality optical system, whether it be a camera assembly for a smart phone, the James Webb Space telescope, the optical system for a military system, or the cameras for planetary exploratory missions, without truly understanding the relationship between the optics and the mechanics.

To build a high-quality optical system, it is important to understand the properties of the materials used to make the optics, whether it is glass, metal, plastic, low-expansion material, or material for lightweight optics. Thermal and structural analyses of the optics are extremely important. Mounts for holding the optics to within the required tolerances without distorting the optics are essential. The design of flexures used to control the location of the optical elements is very important. Understanding analytic methods for predicting changes in the position, orientation, and size of an image is important. So how do we learn both the necessary optical design and the necessary mechanical design to design and build a high-quality optomechanical system?

Most optomechanical engineers start their career by getting a good technical background in optics or mechanical engineering, and then through on-the-job training, they become high-quality optomechanical engineers. They learn from colleagues; they learn by making mistakes; and most importantly, they learn from books such as this handbook on optomechanical engineering that can tremendously help in giving the optical or mechanical engineers the information they need to design a good optomechanical system. This handbook covers all key optomechanical engineering topics such as International Organization for Standardization standards, material selection criteria, tolerancing, design of lens and mirror mounts and adjustment mechanisms, fabrication and heat treatment methods for long-term stability, etc. All chapters have been authored by the subject matter experts with highly successful track records of developing sophisticated optical systems for space, military, and medical applications.

James C. Wyant

Professor Emeritus of Optical Sciences

Founding Dean of the College of Optical Sciences

University of Arizona

SPIE Past President

OSA Past President

The discipline of optomechanical engineering continues to play a key role in the design and development of sophisticated optical systems for space, military, and commercial applications. Such systems include the James Webb telescope, high-resolution cameras for Mars rovers and other planetary missions; seekers and sensors for ballistic missile interceptors; and laser systems for surgical and cosmetic procedures such as hair and tattoo removal.

This second edition of Handbook of Optomechanical Engineering is the result of collaboration of many subject-matter experts from top optical engineering organizations across the United States and Canada. We have attempted to cover the latest optomechanical engineering knowledge, practice, and art that has been developed over the last 15 years at the leading optical engineering organizations across the world. All original chapters in the first editions have been extensively updated in this second edition. Moreover, four new chapters have been added in this edition: plastic optics (). Plastic optics are increasingly being used in commercial and military applications. The chapter on plastic optics covers the materials, fabrication, and optomechanical design aspects of refractive and diffractive optical elements.

The new chapter on optomechanical tolerancing and error budgets addresses the important topic of tolerancing of optical elements and mechanical components. This chapter describes the tolerancing process and methods to consolidate optical and optomechanical tolerance analyses and covers the interaction between lenses and mounts in terms of manufacturing errors. Also described is the optomechanical statistical tolerancing method and guidelines to efficiently allocate tolerances for achieving the desired performance requirements while minimizing the manufacturing costs.