Very good, thanks for the advice. Using the NSDD operand helps a lot, exactly what I was looking for.

I have a follow up question about this. As far as I know, the computing power required for the NSC optimization is significantly higher than when using SC. As I’m trying to simulate an array consisting of about 15 LEDs and at least two odd aspheres, I’m wondering if this will result in very long optimization times. Is there any way of reducing the optimization time?

I don’t know of a better way to do this. The only thing I would suggest is to use only as many analysis rays as are needed to drive the optimization. You can later increase the rays for a final optimization. 

I agree with everything @David says, but lets think of this in the sequential mode.

To model an LED array you’d want to use Telecentric Object mode (there’s a switch on the Aperture tab of the System Explorer) so that each field point is radiating out to an entrance pupil at infinity. You’ll then have some optical system that images the field points onto the image plane.

I don’t see any problem in using normal Optimization Wizard targets like RMS Spot or RMS wavefront. Assuming each LED is images to some kind of finite point, the encircled energy will be high because the rays all land on the target.

Also, I think you should use IMAE rather than GENC. GENC is as you say computed for an individual field point, whereas IMAE considers the whole field. It’s the optimization equivalent of the Image Analysis feature.

Hope that helps,

• Mark