A wide variety of applications now exemplifies the maturity and finesse of nonimaging optics. Its proceedings were issued as Volume 2538. To solve these problems we presented the proposal that nonimaging designs be regarded as functional of the desired irradiance.
Nonimaging optics is the optics of extended sources.
In considering extended sources, one is led to distributions in phase space and inevitably to the theory of radiance. The papers in Volume 2538 include nonimaging theory and analysis, with simulations and modeling, includes concentrators for solar applications, and includes nonimaging optics for laser applications. In our discussion of the conference, we shall identify papers by the author's name and the page number in the volume. The principles of nonimaging concentrators have developed to such a degree that techniques and designs have become standardized, and authors do not explain the fundamentals any longer. This was the case in most of Volume 2538.