Minimizing cost through component level stray light analysis.

Minimizing glare and ghost images in an optical system through stray light control is a significant percentage of the system's design time and cost. Fresnel reflections that cause stray light are often among the worst offenders, and companies rely on optical coatings to reduce the reflections' impact and increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). To facilitate component-level stray light analysis and reduce cost by coating only needed surfaces, we have created a stand-alone tool that uses the OpticStudio Application Programming Interface (API ) to analyze the stray light optical paths and identify the contribution of each component to the noise. Once the contributing surfaces are identified, coatings can be applied only to the worst offenders until the desired SNR is achieved. This process reduces the analysis time and helps to reduce costs compared to coating all the surfaces in the optical system. Use cases and SNR analysis to validate the tool will be presented.