The normalized transfer function of an elliptical annular aperture for incoherent illumination is derived. The relationship between the formulation developed here and a problem occurring in the diffraction from apertures illuminated with partially coherent radiation is shown. Results are discussed in terms of spatial-filtering concepts, with emphasis on the behavior of the cutoff frequency and the passband characteristics in the spatial-frequency plane.

The effect of the aperture ellipticity for arbitrary annulus width is to introduce an asymmetry in the behavior of the cutoff frequency. The presence of a central obstruction, for arbitrary ellipticity, emphasizes the high-frequency transmission, with the region of emphasis dependent upon the angular orientation in the frequency plane.

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