Explain the Reflective Catadioptric Optical System

# Explain the Reflective (Catadioptric) Optical System

Micralign used a catadioptric optical design, combining reflective mirror elements with refractive lens elements rather than relying on a purely refractive lens system.

Mirrors reflect light of every wavelength at the same angle, while simple refractive lenses bend different wavelengths by different amounts, a mismatch that would otherwise blur the projected image.

By building the core of its imaging path around mirrors, Micralign's optical system avoided much of the wavelength-dependent blurring a simpler all-lens design would have introduced.

Diagram above: catadioptric optics.

Diagram above: why reflective optics were chosen.