Design

Optical Design Services

Precision Optical Engineering for Mission-Ready Systems

Clear Align provides advanced opto-mechanical design services that deliver rugged, high-performance optical systems for defense, aerospace, medical, and industrial markets. Our optical engineering team designs lenses to meet our customer's specifications while focusing on performance, manufacturability, environmental conditions, and mission success.

Expertise in Optical System Design

We specialize in optical assembly and system design that balances design elements for ideal image quality and SWaP-C (Size, Weight, Power, and Cost). Our designers apply proven techniques and tools such as NV-IPM, Zemax, Code V, and Solid Works to understand system requirements, generate optical designs, simulate stray light paths, verify models, and conduct tolerance analysis. By identifying critical parameters early, we optimize every design for performance and durability.

Lens Design and Advanced Optics

Our expertise in lens design covers SWIR, MWIR, LWIR, Visible, and multispectral systems. We have a large catalog of lens designs that allow our optical engineers to search for appropriate starting points for each lens design. This access reduces design time and improves compliance to design constraints.

We create zoom lenses, fixed optics, and custom assemblies with precise curvature and refraction control. Lens coatings and surface treatments are engineered to extend durability while meeting wavelength-specific performance needs. From LED optics to high-resolution imaging optics, every lens is validated with our in-house optical testing and environmental qualification lab.

Optical Design Software and Simulation Tools

We leverage leading optical design software, Zemax and FRED, to perform simulation and analysis of complex optical paths. These tools allow us to simulate stray light, thermal drift, and other environmental impacts, ensuring each lens design meets mission-critical requirements. Our team of experts utilize these software platforms to build accurate models and improve production outcomes as well as reduce expenses.

Experts in Optomechanical Engineering

Unlike firms that only offer design, Clear Align integrates manufacturing and production into the process. Our optical and mechanical engineers analyze systems to determine the impacts of alignment, stress, and thermal on overall system performance. As Clear Align is a vertically integrated company with optical fabrication and in house machining capability, we understand the various manufacturing processes in a way that other companies do not. Thus, we can reduce costs, shorten schedules, and deliver complete solutions to our clients ready for field deployment.

Design for Manufacture and Optimization

Every project undergoes peer-reviewed analysis to verify optimization parameters, tolerances, and lens element requirements. Our team evaluates variables such as center thickness, decenter, tilt, index of refraction, irregularity, and surface quality to ensure the designs meet the required system parameters (operational identification, recognition, and detection ranges, minimum distance, distortion, and MTF performance). Custom evaluation code ensures each design proceeds efficiently from prototype to production. By focusing on DFM, we lower lifecycle costs while maintaining technical perfection.

Stray Light Control and Advanced Analysis Tools

Stray light management is both a science and an art, requiring precise development of models that predict unwanted reflections and scattering. At Clear Align, we use advanced analysis tools such as Zemax and FRED, to evaluate optical collection, identify reflection sources, and define stray light mitigation strategies.