Ronchi ruling

Ronchi rulings are typically manufactured through photolithographic deposition of metallic chromium on a substrate, which yields a precise, nearly 100% contrast pattern.

Stacking a pair of Ronchi transmission elements produces a two-dimensional array of periodic rectangular or rhomboidal apertures.

By varying the translation, rotation, and chosen frequency of one element against the other, a wide assortment of laboratory test patterns can be generated with the paired arrangement.

Telescopic focusing aids such as the Bahtinov mask consist of multiple adjacent Ronchi transmission stop patterns.

Inserting a Ronchi mask in the entrance aperture produces diffraction effects in the image, which visibly change with the focusing condition.

A Ronchi ruling