Abstracts Category : Other

Design and development of multichannel optical systems for imaging and non imaging applications

by Marques Mendes Rendeiro

From the beginning of history of science and technology, humankind has sought inspiration from the wonders created by Nature and natural evolution. In the last century, several key inventions were inspired by biological mechanisms found in diverse organisms in Nature: from the invention of Velcro -inspired by the way burdock burrs get attached to fur -up to the development of new energy technologies. The fins of humpback whales were the inspiration to create more powerful wind turbines, and the wave vortices, produced by schools of swimming fish, inspired a new optimization of spatial disposition of wind farms. Optics is no exception. One of the great challenges of optical design is to achieve optical systems ever smaller, with larger field of view and acceptance. Natural evolution found a solution in the vision system of many invertebrates, such as a fly -the compound eye. A compound eye consists of a large number of extremely small vision systems on a curved macro surface, capturing a large field of view, while maintaining their dimensions small. The concept of compound eye has been adapted for optical design, and in the last quarter of century different kinds of multichannel systems were developed. Similarly to how a compound eye works, light splits and is transmitted through a number of different channels and then recombined, either optically or electronically. Multichannel systems have met applications in both imaging and nonimaging optics. In imaging applications, arrays of multi aperture optics have been researched for achieving miniaturization, and for achieving high resolution in specific sectors of the field of view. The segmentation of the field of view has the potential to break the usual trade-off between focal length and field of view, and leads to a reduction of the imaging system's total track length. Multichannel design has been applied in technologies such as vision sensors, head mounted displays and cameras, among others. Nonimaging optics is a branch of optics that deals with the efficient transfer of light between a source and a receiver. It is the best approach for designing solar concentrators and illumination systems, among other applications. The name comes from the fact that there is no requirement to create an image of the source, and the only concern is the efficient light transfer, which provides a larger freedom to design systems. The multichannel approach in non imaging optics has been used both in illumination as in Concentrated Photovoltaics (CPV) applications by combining it with advanced methods such as the Simultaneous Multiple Surface (SMS) design method and Khler integration for designing freeform surfaces. Concentrated Photovoltaics (CPV) is a technology that consists ofa concentrator optical system that focuses sunlight onto a photovoltaic cell. The main goal of this technology is to decrease the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). The strategy to achieve this goal is based on two approaches: (i) by concentrating the sunlight, it is possible to dramatically decrease theAdvisors/Committee Members: Miano Domnguez, Juan Carlos.