Suppression of Petzval Aberration in a Projector Lens by Using Genetic Algorithm

An optical solution method with genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed as a means to minimize the Petzval field curvature aberration (Petzval FCA), which is intrinsic, but plays a significant role at improvement of projection optics. Petzval FCA is generally more sensitive to the surface curvature and refractive index, closely related to the fundamental optical layout and its physical concept. Through the proposed optimization method in this research, with crossover and mutation operations provided by the GA, the simulation results imply that 79.75% at least of the Petzval FCA of projection optics can be eliminated, which leads to better performance of projector optics, especially in 1080P and 3-D high-definition projection optics.