Group error modeling in optical tolerancing and alignment

摘要

Tolerancing and alignment steps in optical engineering involve modeling errors to the system. Typical approaches involve perturbing the optical system model to determine sensitivities. In this paper, we provide a combinatorial group error approach using base gradient and Hessian for the figure of merit corresponding to a perturbed optical system. We provide key formulas and principles of the method versus the rigor of showing robust implementation. Thus, the key expressions for grouping and combining the errors are given in a general form that can be easily extended to include additional basic sets of optical system errors. The method described here can be applied for any type of error given its constituent derivatives, and single surface errors. The paper includes examples and high-level comments on robust implementation of the principles shown.