4 Steps to Precisely Analyze Stray Light for Cameras Using Zemax Import and Speos Analytics

More than ever, a primary challenge in the design of many optical products is achieving the clearest possible image, whether it's for a space-based telescope, a nanoscale camera, or the head-up display (HUD) in a car. This image quality is measured by resolution and contrast. Stray light can lead to unwanted bright spots, which reduces image contrast and a system’s dynamic range.

In the case of smartphone cameras, stray light is a common culprit for blurring and discoloring images. Because the cameras can be used in virtually any environment, their design must account for stray light in a variety of existing lighting conditions, such as dimly lit rooms, outdoor playgrounds on a sunny day, and busy nighttime roadways full of streetlights, moving vehicles' headlamps, and lighted signs.

With the ongoing market imperatives to make smartphone cameras smaller and more lightweight, optical teams need tools and protocols that will help them identify and remediate stray light in their designs to preserve superior image quality.

What is Stray Light and how do you fix it?

• Using the Zemax Import tool, you can automatically pull the OpticStudio data into Speos, apply relevant parameters to the data, and continue to refine the design with respect to stray light influence via additional simulation-based analytics.

Let's take a high-level look at how this interoperability between the two software packages typically works.

Easy 4-Step Workflow to Analyzing Stray Light in Smartphone Camera Lenses

1. Create the lens design and import it into Speos.

Using OpticStudio simulation and stray light tools, you can build and refine the lens system for your optical design. OpticStudio saves the lens parameter data in a Zemax OpticStudio (ZOS) file format, which can be automatically uploaded in Speos using Zemax Import. This automation provides greater efficiency and accuracy over manual data transfer, which takes more time and introduces potential human error.

In Speos, the Projection Lens feature recreates each lens based on a native computer-aided design (CAD) geometry with access to all lens parameters in the data file. Speos converts all data into its native format and applies optical properties to the lenses.

2. Detect the light conditions that might cause stray light.

You can use the Light Expert (LXP) feature in Speos to identify and study the stray light conditions that will impact your design, including light sources within the camera's field of view (FOV) and potential light leakage in your system's mechanical housing from beyond the FOV.

Using backward ray tracing — sending rays from the imager through the system (created in Step 1) to the scene — enables you to detect all possible critical light source positions within one simulation. Speos’ powerful LXP capabilities enable you to display these critical ray paths.

3. (Optional) Conduct additional simulations based on known likely sources.

Beyond the analysis yielded by the parameterized data passed from the optical design, you can conduct further simulations based on other conditions likely to exist for the system user. For example, Figure 4 shows the simulation of a full-system stray light analysis. Once you have identified and mitigated any critical light sources outside of the camera’s FOV, you can define sun positions within the FOV using an accurate spectral sunlight to simulate the stray light patterns on the imager.

Note: For these simulations, it's recommended that you have access to additional processing power to run the necessary calculations. Speos is designed to operate optimally in high-performance computing (HPC) environments, but in the event you don't have HPC, recent Speos developments have also optimized analytics performance using certain graphics processing units (GPUs). To learn more about Speos GPU-Compute, watch this webinar.

4. Analyze the Stray Light Path Sequences and Apply Mitigations

Using the analysis from the LXP simulation, along with the Speos Sequence Detection viewer, you can identify the most critical ray path sequences and object interactions that yield stray light in your design. The Sequence Detection tool in Speos contains information about all detected ray path sequences and object interactions sorted by energy contribution. You can then mitigate the risk of these stray light cases and apply remediation measures by making further changes to the design, such as by applying a nonreflective coating or changing other material properties.

To learn more details about these four steps and follow an example demonstration based on the "four sun positions" scenario described in the previous step, read our App Gallery article.

For more information about Ansys Speos or Ansys Zemax OpticStudio, visit the Ansys Optics page.