Impact of microvibration on the optical performance of an airborne camera

Appl Opt. 2021 Feb 10;60(5):1283-1293. doi: 10.1364/AO.411299.

Abstract

Aiming to investigate the connection between camera structure and optical systems, a comprehensive analysis needs to be performed for the airborne camera. An integrated analysis method was proposed to design and analyze optical and mechanical structures. Based on the designed small airborne camera, the impact of microvibration on the optical performance of the airborne camera was studied by integrated optomechanical analysis. In addition, the change of optical surface accuracy was analyzed. First, static and dynamic analysis of the designed airborne camera was performed to verify the stability of the camera structure and obtain the data for integrated optomechanical analysis. Then, a calculation method for rigid body displacement was proposed, and the impact of rigid body displacements on the optical system was analyzed. To evaluate the change of surface accuracy, the parameters root mean square (RMS) and peak to valley (PV) were calculated by fitting the surface distortion data. Based on the Zernike polynomial coefficients, the response of the optical system was calculated and analyzed utilizing ZEMAX to analyze the impact of microvibration on the optical performance of the airborne camera. The analysis results show that microvibration has no significant impact on optical performance of the designed small airborne camera. Finally, the analysis results were verified through experiments.