New tools for the design of freeform mirrors

Advances in manufacturing and measuring technology are making the use of freeform mirrors more practical than in the recent past. New degrees of freedom make it possible for designers to improve image quality while increasing the field of view and avoiding obscurations. But other issues arise when one designs a system with several mirrors, particularly packaging and clearance concerns: one must ensure that none of the mirrors gets in the way of the beam from any of the others, and one must consider the coordinate system in which the shapes are defined and in which they are measured, which are not necessarily the same. Addressing these concerns requires new computational tools.