OSLO Highlights

OSLO stands for Optics Software for Layout and Optimization of optical systems. OSLO is used primarily to determine the optimum sizes and shapes of the elements in optical systems in cameras, consumer products, communications systems, military/space applications, scientific instruments, etc. In addition, it is used to simulate the performance of optical systems, and to develop specialized software tools for optical design, testing, and manufacturing.

What types of systems can I design using OSLO?

Almost any optical system that involves propagating light waves. The following are some typical examples of systems that can be designed using OSLO: Conventional Lenses Zoom Lenses Gaussian Beam/Laser Cavities Fiber Coupling Optics Illumination Systems Non-Sequential Propagation Systems Polarization-Sensitive Optics High-Resolution Imaging Systems Also, systems with gradient index surfaces, aspherics, diffractive surfaces and holograms, lens arrays, interferometric deformations etc. OSLO is not intended for the design of waveguides, nor for the design of eyeglasses.

What are OSLO's features?

OSLO is a large program, with thousands of internal commands and functions. Moreover, the executable module of OSLO is routinely modified and recompiled by users. As a result, it is not possible to give an exact list of specifications for what the program can do. The various links in the list below provide a general survey of the features in OSLO, but this is not a formal specification list. If you have a question about a specific capability, you should look at the Software section of this web site or contact Sinclair Optics directly.

• Lens and Material Databases
• Special Surface Data
• Zoom and Multiconfiguration Systems
• Arrays and Non-Sequential Groups
• Special Apertures
• Tolerance and Element Data
• Polarization and Thin Film Coatings
• Ray tracing
• Diffraction and Partial Coherence
• Optimization Methods
• Tolerance Analysis
• Lasers, Fibers, and Gaussian Beams
• Illumination Analysis
• Perfect Lenses and Eikonals

How does OSLO compare to other software?

Although many optical design programs are superficially similar, there are big differences in their capabilities and design approaches. OSLO is a mainstream optical design programs that has consistently shared top honors in optical design "contests". Although OSLO has a heritage traceable back to the early 1960's, in its current implementation it is essentially an object-oriented windows program, with a unique built-in application manager/compiler that provides extremely high performance on desktop computers.

What are OSLO's strong points?

1. Designer-Oriented Design. OSLO stresses interactive optical design, in which the computer provides easily understood feedback to the designer. This allows the designer to make critical trade-off decisions that produce superior solutions. OSLO is unique in its use of interactive design controls that make the user interface as intuitive as possible. Click here to see more...
2. Power and Accuracy. OSLO uses advanced optical design technologies, including multiple optimization and tolerancing methods, high-performance non-sequential raytracing, and stochastic source modeling and analysis. OSLO was the first program used for serious optical design on desktop computers, and it has been developed far more extensively than other software.
3. Flexibility. A prime reason that OSLO has become the tool of choice for leading designers around the world is that it is easy to customize and adapt the program to specific needs. The reason for this is that OSLO uses advanced software technologies to bring the power of Windows into the realm of technical computing. In fact, the CCL language supplied with OSLO is more comparable to Sun's Java or Microsoft's Visual Basic for Applications than to the simple macro languages supplied with other optical design software.