Lens Design: An Attempt to Use ‘Escape Function’ as a Tool in Global Optimization

In designing lenses with the damped least squares method, the solution obtained by optimization routine is a local minimum of the merit function. To get out of this and seek a different solution, we propose to use an ‘escape function’ as an additional operand of the lens system, to be controlled. Experiments were made on simple models of merit function and the advantage of this technique was ascertained. We also planted this algorithm into OSLO SIX (lens design software by Sinclair Optics) by means of CCL (C-compatible language) and applied it to actual lens design. Experiments convinced us that the method would be an effective tool for global optimization.