White Paper: Designing With Confidence -- LightTools Simulated Performance vs. Measured Data: Three Case Studies

As with all design software, most designs in LightTools will eventually be manufactured. Optical designers pour vast amounts of time and energy into making designs that meet their specifications, and they trust their design software to produce simulated results that will match manufactured results. Depending on the experience of the designer, the amount of trust in the software that this process requires can be quite high.

LightTools has the ability to accurately model both an ideal design and the "as manufactured" system. With a high level of correlation between simulated performance and measured data, users can design with complete confidence; if the simulation meets the specification, so will the part.

This paper showcases three illumination designs in which good correlation was found between LightTools simulated results and measured data from physical hardware. While any discrepancies are small, the possible sources of error in the model will be discussed for each case.