Optimization for high precision Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor

A comprehensive noise model about digital camera which is a main component of SHWFS is constructed, including the readout noise, the photon shot noise, the quantization noise and the response un-uniformity. Based on the noise model, the spot centroid errors caused by each kind of noise are analyzed, respectively. And then the synthetic error from all the noise is calculated. The result demonstrates that the limit of the spot centroid accuracy is 1% pixels. At last, the crossing error caused by the high order diffraction spots is analyzed. It is approximately proportional to the secondary spots number. So the structure of the microlens array must be optimized together with the digital camera when designing SHWFS.