Multiple zone multifocal phase designs.

New multifocal phase designs aiming at expanding depth of focus in the presbyopic eye are presented. The designs consist of multiple radial or angular zones of different powers or of combined low- and high-order aberrations. Multifocal performance was evaluated in terms of the dioptric range for which the optical quality is above an appropriate threshold, as well as in terms of the area under the through-focus optical quality curves. For varying optical power designs optimal through-focus performance was found for a maximum of three to four zones. Furthermore adding more zones decreased the optical performance of the solution. Angular zone designs provided better multifocal performance (1.95 times on average) than radial zone designs with identical number of zones and the same power range. The optimal design (angular design with three zones) surpassed by 33% the multifocal performance of a bifocal angular zone design and by 32% a standard multifocal phase plate with induced spherical aberration only. By using combinations of low- and high-order aberrations the through-focus range can be extended further by another 0.5 D beyond that of the best design of varying optical power. These designs can be implemented in adaptive optics systems for testing their visual performance in subjects and converted into multifocal contact lenses, intraocular lenses, or presbyopic corneal laser ablation profiles.