ABSTRACT
Typically, optical devices designed using the fl ow-line method are quite large in the case of small acceptance angles, and they also need to touch the edges of the receiver. A possible way around this limitation is to consider a step curve along the fl ow lines, with some portions of the curve along the fl ow lines and others perpendicular to those lines. The portions along the fl ow lines are converted to mirrors and to those perpendicular to the fl ow lines we add optics. This results in a microstructured optic with many small optical elements combined into one. Different versions of these devices have numerous applications, such as very compact concentrators, concentrators that do not touch the receiver, backlights and frontlights, and light guides that distribute the light of a source to several receivers or those that combine the light from several small sources onto a single exit aperture (synthetic large source).
