MULTIPLE IMAGING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DESIGNING SAME

An optical system of the present invention produces multiple simultaneous adjoining images on a single image plane. The optical system includes a firs t optical sub-system (12), a second optical sub-system (14), an aperture stop (16) located between the first and second optical sub-systems, and a beam separating sub-system (18) located at a plane substantially coincident with the aperture stop. The beam separating sub-system can receive electromagneti c radiation from the first optical sub-system and can separate the received electromagnetic radiation into multiple beams of electromagnetic radiation. The second optical sub-system images the multiple beams of electromagnetic radiation received from the beam separating sub-system into multiple images on an image plane (28).An output filter, overlaid on the image plane, prevents light from any one of the images from passing through to the portion of the image plane corresponding to any one of the other images.