Scaling laws for lens systems.

Situations exist in the area of optical information processing where one may choose between either a single large lens or many small lenslets side by side. The choice will be influenced by many parameters, among others by the space-bandwidth product SW. The SW is an upper limit for the number of data channels which can be handled in parallel. Hence, we investigate the scaling behavior of the space-bandwidth product. Professional lens designers sometimes have viewpoints different from those of designers of systems for digital optics. That fact may justify this investigation, performed by a nonlens designer.