Lens designs by ray tracing analyses for high-performance reflection optical modules

Three kinds of novel optical modules are designed for high-efficiency light concentration. Each optical module consists of three components, namely a reflector, a second optical element (SOE) with a different parabolic profile and a concentrating lens. A concentrating lens with various profile designs is installed at the open end of the reflector to improve the uniformity of ray irradiances collected at the solar cell chip. An effective process for finding the optimum design for the geometries of these optical modules is presented to obtain good uniformity in ray irradiance distribution and high optical performance. The results of ray tracing simulations indicate that the optimum design is achieved based on the principle or the compromise of having the lowest value of the highest peak of ray irradiances and the highest optical performance. The optical module designed without a concentrating lens has a relatively high peak at the center of the circular irradiance distribution. The use of a Fresnel lens can impede the high peak effectively and achieve very good optical performance. Modules with spherical and aspherical concentrating lenses have irradiance peaks that are much higher than that of the Fresnel lens although their performance is negligibly higher than that of the Fresnel lens. Â