Improvement of Petzval Field Curvature in Projector Lens Optimization Design

This paper focuses on the improvement of the Petzval field curvature aberration that is induced by the lens curvature and refractive index. Most primary aberrations can be effectively corrected by using aspherical lens while the Petzval filed curvature regarded as intrinsic to an optical system cannot easy be corrected through the high order coefficient of aspherical lens. With the global optimization of the genetic algorithm (GA), this study applies the basic selection, crossover and mutation operator to optimize a group of lens curvatures and thicknesses so that not only the Petzval field curvature aberration is effectively improved but also the specification requirement is met in a projector system.