ABSTRACT
Non-imaging concentrators, such as the compound parabolic concentrator, are ideal for the concentration of radiation. Imaging optics, such as lenses or parabolic mirrors, are much more compact, but they cannot achieve high concentrations that non-imaging optics can deliver. Parabolic mirrors may be combined with kaleidoscope secondaries to produce a uniform flux distribution on the receiver. In the case of circular receivers, the concentration produced by a parabolic primary is also lower than the ideal maximum. In the designs presented earlier, the primary was considered as a Lambertian source, and a non-imaging optic secondary placed close to the focus further increases the concentration. It is, however, possible to design secondaries for the edge rays across the primary. These optics are called tailored edge ray concentrators (TERC). TERC mirrors are flow-line mirrors. The remainder of the secondary is a TERC mirror calculated by the constant optical path length.
