What’s New in This Update?

Version 12.062

The update to version 12.062 incorporates the following changes:

Features:

1.  You can now freeze the Command Window.  The program will open another one so you can still enter your input – but the one you froze will stay there and you cannot read from or write to it.  This is where you can keep a reference listing of some kind so you can compare it to a later one, and not worry about accidentally overwriting what was there.  Just click the new toolbar button (the snowflake).

2.  The T/number feature TN now accepts a color number.

3.  The PAD PP (perspective drawing) feature now has a set of scrollbars that open up (instead of the four arrow buttons) to let you more quickly rotate the picture to the view you want.

4.  The TRAY feature has been renamed TARGET.  This avoids the complication of trying to figure out whether you meant TRAY or TRACE.

5.  The PAD drawing features D and PP will now accept a pencil of rays specified by the user in both HBAR and GBAR (instead of just one or the other).  This change required restructuring the files saved with the SSU command, with the result that if you try to get back the files saved with an earlier version (with RSU), you get only the lenses back, not the PAD display settings.  Just restore the displays the way you want, and do an SSU again to save them in the new format.

6.  You are now permitted to put a decentered RAO on lenses as well as mirrors.  This can be combined with EFILE data to create a more complex lens edge shape than was permitted before.

7.  You can now use the color request GREEN (instead of LIME) on PER, RPER, and SOLID drawings.  This was not allowed before because it looks too much like GREYSCALE, which is something else altogether, but since the two are used in different places, there was actually no conflict.

Bugs Fixed:

1.  TN did not work properly with polarization mode UNPOLARIZED.  Also, if you had any surfaces with a TAG assigned, you got lots of unnecessary output.

2.  The MC option to plot the distribution function gave an inverted analysis for STREHL and MTF descriptors.  These are supposed to be large, not small.

3.  The Shape Options dialog would crash if you sent in a surface with a TORIC 0 property.

Syntax Summary pages changed:

7, 9
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Version 12.061

The update to version 12.061 incorporates the following changes:

Features:

1.  If you copy an example from the Help file and paste it into a MACro editor window, it shows up with double-spaced lines.  Previous versions then automatically removed all blank lines from the MACro to fix things up (so you probably did not even know about it) – but that also deleted any blank lines you might have put there yourself to make the file more readable.  Now the MACro editor has a button that you can click if you want to remove blanks, and it is not automatic anymore.

2.  The DMASK feature has a new option that plots a curve of the DOE profile, greatly magnified, so you can see the shape and orientation of the grooves.  This is a great way to ensure that the part is not manufactured with the wrong power because the vendor has a different sign convention in his software.

3.  The GlassTable display button that lets you select either a black or white background is now sticky; it remembers your choice next time you open it.

4.  Error message processing has been enhanced.  Before, if you entered data that made no sense, the program sent a message to the Command Window and turned on the Error Messages button.  Although the information was right there, it was easy to miss – which we did all the time.  Now the program will display urgent messages in a box that pops up, forcing you to close the box, and ensuring that you are aware of the problem.  The toolbar button still works the same way as before, so you can review your error messages later if you wish.

We have put only the most urgent messages into this new category, so minor errors and informational messages will not interrupt your work or your MACro execution.  In the unlikely event that we put a message into that category that you feel should not be there, you can turn off that error display by clicking in the check box on the dialog – or turn off display of all immediate error boxes by turning on switch 79.  And please inform us of the circumstances, if it ever happens.

Bugs Fixed:

1.  Requesting a BTOL budget with a confidence of less than 50% would abort.  By definition, if you ask for a confidence of 50%, then half of the cases will be worse than the target, and the mean value of all of the cases will be right at the target, with a standard deviation of zero.  You cannot ask for a standard deviation less than 0 (which caused the abort), so the new version will not accept a confidence level that is below 50%.

Syntax Summary pages changed:

2, 8
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SYNOPSYS Help File DocumentVersion 12.060

The update to version 12.060 incorporates the following changes:

Features:

1.  A powerful feature has been added to enable tolerance desensitization in the design phase.  This involves targeting certain functions that are built around 3rd order aberrations and their derivatives.  Read about this in Section 10.13.

Bugs Fixed:

1.  If any of your variables were initially out of bounds, the optimization routine sometimes failed to converge.

Syntax Summary pages changed:

13
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SYNOPSYS Help File DocumentVersion 12.059

The update to version 12.059 incorporates the following changes:

Features:

1.  The next time you try to run your optimization MACro only to have it abort on the first pass because a ray failed to trace, just click on a new toolbar button.  That will alter your lens so the ray gets through and then automatically try the optimization again.  Very easy.  Read about it in Section 10.3.1.2.

2.  SYNOPSYS has several features to find the transmission of your system, considering apodization, coatings, polarization, and vignetting.  It can also consider absorption – but until now that calculation was separate from the above.  A new feature TN finds the T/number based on all of the above.

3.  A new feature will convert the RPER display to an IGES file.  Just click the IGES button on the RPER toolbar.

Bugs Fixed:

1.  Schott glass types FK3 and FK5 did not have CTE data assigned.

2.  Gratings altered by the Surface Option dialog (via SPS or WS) came back with the frequency reduced by 1000.

Syntax Summary pages changed:

7
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The update to version 12.058 incorporates the following changes:

Features:

1.  The glass tables now contain the thermal expansion coefficients of all glasses for which dn/dt data are present.  (Preferred glasses in Schott and Ohara, and some U glasses.)

2.  You can now specify a default expansion coefficient in the RLE file.  This will apply to the lens cell when processed by THERM.

2.  The THERM feature has been greatly enhanced.  Now it will find the coefficients mentioned above and automatically assign them where needed in your lens.  Also, if you enter coefficients yourself, you can choose from 17 different materials just by entering a code name.  A THERM file therefore can in simple cases consist of but two lines, instead of the whole list of coefficients you had to enter yourself before.  Also, for documentation, it prints a table of the coefficients that were applied when it ran.

Bugs Fixed:

1.  RTRANS crashed.

2.  The glass-table display feature showed some quirks: if you displayed the U table and asked for full names and black background, the names vanished.  Other tables worked fine.  Also, if you entered a glass name into a data box yourself, and went over the maximum of eight characters, the program crashed.

3.  The line spacing on gratings did not come back correctly on a GET or FETCH.

Syntax Summary pages changed:

3, 21
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The update to version 12.057 incorporates the following changes:

Features:

1.  WGT and GWGT now work with EFILE mirrors, and deduct the weight of any cutout, which must be entered as a CAI on the surface.  The cutout is modeled as a right cylinder, which is not exact but is close because the surface is usually rather flat near the axis.

2.  Footprint plots can now show the rays in individual patterns in the color of your choice.

3.  Values of dn/dt are now in the U glass table for the IR materials GE, ZNSE, ZNS, CAFL, and SILICON.

Bugs Fixed:

1.  WGT did not work properly for very steep meniscus lenses.

2.  Gratings were modeled in a way that yielded numeric imprecision at the level of a fraction of a wave.

Syntax Summary pages changed:

17
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The update to version 12.056 incorporates the following changes:

Features:

1.  Four new plastic materials have been added to the U library: SP-1516, SP-1715, SD-1414, and AD-5503.

2.  A new feature will calculate and plot the CAM curves for a ZFILE zoom lens. It can also change the number of defined zoom positions from 2 to 10, interpolating all of the relevant data to find intermediate positions.

3.  A new surface shape is available: USS type 5 is a polynomial expansion with some terms up to 8th order.  This will model some rather wild anamorphic, potato-chip surfaces.  If you ever need them.

Bugs Fixed:

1.  The Pupil Wizard (MPW) removed the WAP option, if any, when you clicked OK.

2.  The PAD perspective drawing option did not honor any requested GBAR coordinate in the custom raytrace feature.

3.  Ray OPDs were not calculated correctly for lenses with object type OBD (extreme wide angle).

Syntax Summary pages changed:

7
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SYNOPSYS Help File DocumentVersion 12.055

The update to version 12.055 incorporates the following changes:

Features:

1.  Three new plastic materials have been added to the U glass catalog: ZEON480R, ZEON48R, and ZEON330R.

2.  SOLID now samples the lens with pixels that are half as big as before.  This means that edges, which are drawn with broken lines due to pixilation, are somewhat smoother.

3.  The dialog MMF, for MTF at multiple field angles, now considers the requested cutoff frequency to be sticky.  Before, it defaulted to the Fco entered anywhere else.  Also, the default grid number for the Zernike option is now 80, for greater accuracy if the default is used.

Bugs Fixed:

1.  The paraxial analysis of DOEs and HOEs did not properly account for the focusing effect of the G 1 term in the OPD function.

Syntax Summary pages changed:

none
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The update to version 12.054 incorporates the following changes:

Features:

1.  The Image Tools Menu (MIT) has a new target geometry: a set of 3-bar targets of varying sizes, modeled after the popular Air Force resolution targets, to verify that your lens will pass that resolution spec.

Bugs Fixed:

1.  The BTOL directive FIX IRREG … came back with a different tolerance than requested.

2.  Entering a real pupil in an RLE file would delete any VFIELD data then in effect, which made no sense since they are quite compatible.  The Pupil Wizard (MPU) therefore clobbered your VFIELD as soon as you entered it, if the pupil was real.

Syntax Summary pages changed:

none
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SYNOPSYS Help File DocumentVersion 12.053

The update to version 12.053 incorporates the following changes:

Features:

1.  The graphics feature PER can now draw the path of a Gaussian beam through the lens.  This is a good way to verify that the real rays that you have corrected closely follow the Gaussian path.

2.  PARTC can now analyze the imaging properties of an annular light distribution in the pupil.  It is the practice in the microlithography industry to illuminate the mask with a beam that focuses to a small spot at the center of the pupil, to approximate the fully coherent case.  This rules out using any kind of obscured system, since the low orders of the diffracted information would then be obscured and the image would suffer.  Another approach, which has been overlooked as far as we know, is to allow an obscured reflective design, and illuminate the pupil with a ring of light, perhaps from an axicon condenser design.  The zero order gets through just fine, and resolution is somewhat higher than the usual case.  We await user feedback on the utility of this approach.

PARTC also now puts a copy of its output into the AI buffer, where you can do extra processing if you need to.

Bugs Fixed:

There were no bugs reported this update.

Syntax Summary pages changed:

10, 18
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Version 12.053

The update to version 12.052 incorporates the following changes:

Features:

1.  The GT Data Box dialog (which shows properties of a selected glass type) now has Print and Bitmap buttons.

Bugs Fixed:

1.  The end points used by the program for an ADEF analysis were not always what the user requested.  Also, asking for a plot from that feature would sometimes crash.

2.  The 9th data point for a UAP polygon aperture was set to (0,0) by the spreadsheet SPS.

Syntax Summary pages changed:

none
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