Design of high ratio middle infrared continuous zoom optical system

In recent years, the demand for infrared zoom systems is increasing in proportion with the development of infrared technology and its applications. To meet this demand a variety of zoom lenses have been designed. Infrared cameras operating in the 3-5μm spectral band are used in a wide variety of applications such as targeting, rescue, guidance and surveillance systems as well as other equipment. This paper using cool 320×240 detector with staring focal plane array and secondary imaging, a mid-wave optical system using mechanical-compensated with large-aperture and a zoom range of 10:1 is designed. The Pixel Dimensions of the detector is 30μm, and the wavelength between 3.7μm ~4.8μm.The system adopts negative group variable times and positive group of compensation which can realize 33mm~330mm continuous zoom and FOV =20.61°~2.08° ,it consists of 7 lenses including 3 aspheric surface. The length of the system is 262mm with the reflection mirror multipass optical path. The results show that the modulation transfer function(MTF)are above 0.4 within the whole focal range at spatial frequency of 17 lp/mm, and Root Mean Square (RMS) value of spot diameter were smaller than the Pixel Dimensions. After the image quality being optimized, the narcissus analysis is done and 100% cold shield efficiency is obtained. Finallythe monotonic and smooth Cam curve is given. The curve shows that the imaging plane is stable and the cam is easy to process. The system has advantages of simple structure, high image quality and short zoom path etc.