Optical lens design is the process of designing a
lens to meet a set of performance requirements and constraints, including cost and manufacturing limitations. Parameters include surface profile types (
spherical,
aspheric,
holographic,
diffractive, etc.), as well as
radius of curvature, distance to the next surface, material type and optionally tilt and decenter. The process is computationally intensive, using
ray tracing or other techniques to model how the lens affects light that passes through it.