Subaperature optical system testing

Full aperture optical system wave-front accuracy obtainable from single or. multiple subaperture wave-front measurements is analytically determined and illustrated with numerical examples. Insight gained from the analytic derivation and confirmed by the examples shows the effect of subaperture size, placement, and accuracy. The analysis also demonstrates that accurate full aperture aberrations (except tilt) can be estimated even with large uncertainty in relative subaperture tilt.