The development of products in many industries requires the application of multiple disciplines of engineering in order to obtain useful performance predictions. In this paper, an interface program called SigFit will be discussed which converts FEA thermal and structural results from Abaqus to optical analysis programs Zemax, CODEV, and OSLO. The resulting capability of making optical performance predictions that are tightly linked with mechanical performance predictions from Abaqus allows opto-mechanical engineers to achieve more aggressive performance requirements. Specific mechanical disturbance issues include optical surface deformations, thermo-optic effects, and stress-induced birefringence effects. This paper discusses how SigFit performs the integration of mechanical finite element analysis and optical performance analysis that is required to recast Abaqus results output into a useable format for some common commercially available optical analysis tools. However, mechanical predictions from finite element tools are not in a readily useable form for use in optical performance analysis tools. In the photonics industry performance degradations are caused by various mechanical disturbances such as deformations, motions, temperature changes, and induced stresses within optical components and the metering structures that support them.

Birefringence in zemax latest