Julius Muschaweck

The next series of online courses is scheduled to start on June 23, 2025. The courses are live, real time Zoom meetings, with exercises and supporting materials.

We'll start with the basics:

• Course 1, "Understanding Light for Illumination", nine sessions @ three hours each over three weeks, explains the deep, beautiful, and immensely useful theory of light for illumination. Practical exercises and examples are an integral part of the course. They show how the theory lets us see what can or cannot be done in illumination optics, and how the same theory guides us towards viable solutions. A basic working knowledge of optics is assumed.

Every illumination system contains a light source, but it's not at all obvious how to model light sources in software:

• Course 2, "Modeling Sources and Optical Systems in Illumination Optics", three sessions @ three hours each over three days, shows engineers in illumination optics how to get their ray-tracing models right. It helps if participants ar be familiar with the optics concepts covered in our course “Understanding Light for Illumination", but it's not required. I'll be using LightTools® to demonstrate examples. However, what I show is applicable in any illumination ray tracing software.

Now that you (i) know how the laws of optics govern what you can and cannot do with your system, and (ii) have a well-modeled light source, you're ready to assemble your system using optical elements:

• Course 3, "Optical Elements for Illumination", three sessions @ three hours each over three days, introduces “design patterns” in illumination optics: building blocks as reusable solution approaches to recurring problems. TIR lenses, faceted mirrors, micro lens arrays, mixing rods, CPCs, and Köhler illumination are explained by what they do to the light, and how to combine them.

Freeform elements are special, and, yes, difficult to design. But also very important, and very common:

• Course 4, "Freeform Optics for Illumination", one four hour session, introduces participants to the art of designing freeform optics for illumination: surfaces without translational or rotational symmetry that can efficiently create desired illuminance distributions. The course will explain how freeform surfaces “work”, and show which degrees of freedom, and which limitations, are inherent to the design process. Practical examples will be shown and explained.

Finally, to create good light, engineers need to understand both human color vision, and the spectral behaviour of LEDs:

• Course 5, "Colorimetry for LED Users", three sessions @ three hours each over three days, covers the physiology of color vision, the CIE colorimetry system, color rendering metrics, and the spectral variations that come with LED binning and operating conditions (temperature and current).

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If you take all five courses, you'll receive a 10% discount. To take advantage of this discount, book the package at "All Five Courses".

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See https://www.synopsys.com/optical-solutions/support/training/illumination-basics.html for more details and registration.

If you're outside the European Union, you can also book the courses directly on this website from the shop. However, from within the EU, please contact me directly (proper handling of VAT invoicing required in the EU).