Potential benefits of free-form optics in on-axis imaging applications with high aspect ratio

Including free-form optical components in imaging systems provides numerous opportunities for enhanced performance and compact, lightweight packaging. This applies especially to the use of free-form optics in off-axis imaging applications. In case of on-axis imaging, rotationally symmetric lenses are typically used, as they greatly simplify the design and manufacturing process. However, for imaging applications with high aspect ratio, free-form optics can help to provide solutions with clearly better overall imaging performance. For such cases, the ray tracing simulations in this work demonstrate superior imaging performance of basic free-form lenses in comparison to conventional rotationally symmetric lenses, each consisting of two surfaces.